Heather Wright/The Independent

There are calls for better water safety training after three people died in the waters of Lake Huron in Lambton County over the Labour Day weekend.

Two of the deaths – including a young mother who saved her son from drowning at Mike Weir Park – were in Sarnia at beaches without lifeguards.

The deaths followed another tragic week with three drownings between Aug. 28 and Sept. 5; two in the waters off Pinery Provincial Park and one in the Ausable River in Grand Bend.

The Labour Day weekend began with a search for a 37-year-old kayaker. Huron OPP said the man was reported overdue Saturday. The OPP Marine Unit, search and rescue helicopters, PointSar Coast Guard Auxiliary and private citizens began looking for the man in a blue kayak with a yellow life jacket in the afternoon.

Sunday morning, around 9:40 am, OPP recovered the man’s body in the waters of Lake Huron near Grand Bend. His identity or what happened have not been released.

Saturday evening, tragedy struck at Mike Weir Park in Bright’s Grove.

A Sarnia family was swimming around 7:30 pm when a young boy began to struggle; his mother went in and saved him only to be pulled in herself.

Three people on the beach began CPR on the woman until Lambton paramedics arrived. The young mother was taken to hospital where she died Sunday. Friends have identified the woman as Kait Eastman.

A GoFundMe page set up by Cat Cabajar to help Eastman’s family says “Our beloved Kait sacrificed her own life to save her son who was drowning at a local beach.”

Eastman, Cabajar said, leaves behind two children, a boy and a girl, who will “need our support as they process such a tragic loss.

The GoFundMe, which can be found at https://gofund.me/5cc50cd4f, will raise funds for Eastman’s funeral and “will help lift the burden of these expenses off of her family and any additional funds will help her children who now face a life without their Mom by their side as they grow.”

Then, on Labour Day, Sarnia Fire Rescue officials were called to The Cove around 3 pm for a report of a possible drowning.

Three marine fire units and firefighters on land began an extensive search with bystanders who had seen what happened.

Other first responders joined the search including The Canadian Coast Guard, Point Edward Fire, the OPP, the St. Clair Sheriff and Cheaterfield fire, including its underwater dive unit. Members of the Sarnia Yacht Club also helped with the search. Officials used helicopters, marine units, sonar and 3D imagining in the search.

After more than five-and-a-half hours, rescuers found and recovered the victim from the water. They have not been identified.

Greg Grimes, Unit Leader of PointSAR Marine Rescue, a volunteer unit of the Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary, was out on Lake Huron in his own boat Monday when firefighters were sent to The Cove for a possible drowning. “I became a vessel of opportunities, what we call it at the Coast Guard. I replied to the May Day and went over and assisted with the search in my own boat,” Grimes tells The Independent.

“There were probably a dozen sea doos and personal watercraft searching, and other boats in that area,” he added. The Sarnia Yacht Club, which was out on the water with a sailing school, called in the Mayday.

Grimes says it’s not clear how the swimmer got into trouble in The Cove Monday, but he says conditions on the water – even on a beautiful day – can change rapidly.

“We live, people forget, besides some very powerful waterways,” Grimes says. “The St. Clair River, Lake Huron can look flat and calm, which it did look (Monday)… it wasn’t like there were big rolling waves coming like we had in the week prior.

“Water conditions underneath that calm can be very different. There’s currents. There can be cold sections, and the conditions can change so so so quickly. The wind can shift…and it can change how the currents react, how the waves react, and how difficult it becomes to swim back to shore.”

Chris Houser agrees. He the dean of the faculty of science at the University of Waterloo and a professor of earth and environmental sciences. Lake Huron, particularly around Pinery Park, is known for rip currents.

“Rip current flows offshore where wave breaking is weaker alongshore. This means that the rip can look like the safer location compared to the area of greater breaking,” he says.

“Rip currents called deflection and shadow are common along groynes and jetties. In this case the jetty or groin redirects the alongshore current offshore and it is one of the most common reasons why people drown in the Great Lakes.,” Houser added in an email to The Independent.

For swimmers, Grimes says, there is no real way to assess what is going on beneath the surface of the water.

“I know some beaches put up flags when they can sense an undertow, but when you’re swimming on beaches that don’t have lifeguard protection, it’s very difficult.”

There are just two areas along the Lambton County coast of Lake Huron which have lifeguards during the summer months – Canatara Park and the Main Beach in Grand Bend.

Grimes, who is also a municipal councillor in Point Edward, says there has been discussion about more lifesaving equipment, such as lifesaving rings, along the shoreline.

“At PointSar, one of the things we promote is having all of your safety equipment with you on your boat – so throw ropes, life rings, personal flotation devices, the ability to call for help are all good things to have,” he says. “What I’m thinking is maybe some of those practices need to be brought to the shore, so that when you’re swimming, when you’re out in the water, and you have some of those safety tools readily available, it may help with people,” he says.

But Grimes says it isn’t the only answer.

“I think we just need to increase the respect for the water every time people are around it, regardless of how strong of a swimmer you are or how familiar you think you are with the water,” he says. “I think we really need to work on drowning prevention.”

The Coast Guard Auxiliary worked at that over the summer, visiting day camps to talk about water safety. “We dealt with 100 kids. We hope they all told their friends, and they told two more. But at the same time, there’s 1,000s and 1,000s of young swimmers in this community, and we are surrounded by water….we need to promote swimming and swimming safety.”

PointSar, Grimes says, hopes to work with the Marinas in Sarnia to promote safe swimming next year.

In the meantime, members of the auxiliary, who responded to almost all of the drowning incidents this summer, are drained.

“It can be very traumatic because you ask … what’s the worst case scenario, and unfortunately, all these situations it has been the worst case scenario,” Grimes says.

“These deaths are very tragic because it wasn’t expected or it’s not part of the natural plan, those are the ones you really have to focus on the ‘talking it out.’

“Every drowning victim this summer has been somebody who was young and still had their life ahead of them, so that makes it all the more tragic,” Grimes says.

“We do a lot of rescues and a lot of saves, and when those work out, they work out great. But these ones stay with you for a long time and you wonder what else could have been done.”