Caught on camera: Daughter films dad rescuing her from riptide

NANTUCKET, Mass -- A day of swimming became a rescue times three on Tuesday when a teenage girl, her father and then mother were caught in the current, CBS Boston WBZ reports.

Erynn Johns, 16, was able to capture her own rescue on video using a selfie stick she had brought in the water with her. A Go-Pro camera attached to the selfie stick was rolling as a rip current caught her.

The video shows Erynn's father grabbing the selfie stick to help move his daughter towards shore. As he gets closer, his wife starts to also help pull their daughter into shore. She too battled the rip current.

"Just pure exhaustion seeing your daughter in the waves and your wife go down and not wanting to let them go down," said Derrick Johns, Erynn's father.

Derrick also began to be pulled out to sea. Thankfully, a tragedy was avoided when good Samaritans and lifeguards rushed to help.

"He was pretty far out when I looked back and a couple guys ran in to try and get him," Erynn Johns said.

WBZ reports that after Derrick Johns helped save his daughter, he needed rescuing of his own. He said his oxygen levels were so low, lifeguards told him he only had another 20 seconds.

"I was a Marine and did tours oversea during wartime and never had that level of fear," said Johns.

"Probably a majority of rescues are waist to chest deep water. It can be intimating for people who have not been around the ocean to just stay calm," said Owen Word, a head lifeguard at Horseneck Beach in Westport, Massachusetts.

Word reminds swimmers to go with the rip current because eventually there will be an opening. Lifeguards said the rescue caught on video is a good reminder of that.

The Johns family told WBZ they are vacationing in Nantucket for a few weeks before returning to their home in Texas. They are trying to find the man wearing the orange shorts in the photo above. That man ran into the waters and helped in the rescue efforts.