ORMOND-BY-THE-SEA — The ocean was too inviting for Evan Jacobsen.
He went to the beach at Ormond-by-the-Sea for a walk and decided he wanted to wade in the water.
Then came a rip current. Then came another one.
Jacobsen's heart nearly beat out of his chest and his arthritic hip nearly got pulled out of its socket as he fought his way back to shore, but he survived.
After such a close call, he has sworn off swimming alone in the ocean.
"My hip was in such pain," the 58-year-old Jacobsen said, recounting last Thursday's scare. "It felt like a knife was sticking out of it."
One day later, a man drowned after being caught in a similar rip current off the Volusia County coast, this time about 10 miles south in Daytona Beach. His wife also nearly died, but lifeguards saved her.
Capt. Tammy Malphurs, a spokeswoman with Volusia County Beach Safety Ocean Rescue, said the waves were rougher than normal last week and rip currents usually accompany those choppy conditions.
"We tell people all the time to swim in front of a lifeguard," she said. "That's the most basic and most important rule."
A rip current is a narrow current of water that runs perpendicular to the beach and away from shore. These powerful currents may extend 200 to 2,500 feet, but are typically less than 30 feet wide. Rip currents can often move at more than 5 mph and are not always identifiable to the average beachgoer, especially those already in the water.
The news of Friday's drowning sobered Jacobsen, who was loopy from all the medication he was taking for the muscle and tendon injuries in his hip.
"It hit me really hard," he said of the news of the man's death. "It's so easy to see how something like that could happen. It almost happened to me."
Jacobsen lives in Hopkington, New Hampshire. He traveled last week to Florida to spend a few days with his mother, Meg Bower, who is a seasonal resident of Ormond-by-the-Sea, but spends most of the year in New England.
He drove to spend some vacation time with her and showed up Thursday at her condo at Villa Serino. The two of them went out for lunch shortly after he arrived and then by the time they got back, it was 4:15 p.m. and he still hadn't had time to walk on the sand and breathe in the salty air.
Jacobsen told his mother he'd be back in 30 minutes and headed to the beach. She wouldn't see him again for another three hours.
He noticed the waves were more active than usual, but that didn't intimidate him. It enticed him.
Jacobsen may have had a bum hip, but he has always been a spry person. He's a strong swimmer, too.
The only man he saw during his walk told him, "You picked a perfect day to watch the waves." Then he looked out on the water and saw someone kiteboarding about 200 yards from shore.
Jacobsen promptly decided to ditch his sunglasses, cellphone and wallet and get in the water.
He intended to keep his feet on the bottom and his head well above water. The waves kept getting bigger and bigger until one caused him to tumble backward. He found himself right-side-up again, but he couldn't touch the bottom. Then the rip current took him about 200 yards away from shore.
"I felt this pull on my legs," he said. "The waves kept coming. I tried to body surf back, but the current kept pulling me out."
Swimming parallel wasn't working, so he tread water and let the current carry him until he stopped drifting away.
"I was more concerned about sharks and jellyfish at that point," he Jacobsen said.
He found a landmark on shore to swim toward and headed back to the beach. He was making headway before he was engulfed by another rip current. He was pulled to sea again.
"That's when I got nervous," he said. "I had gotten winded. I wasn't pulled out as far as before, but I was running out of energy."
On Oct. 17, 2017, Jacobsen lost his wife to cancer and acute pancreatitis, leaving him alone to finish raising their teenage sons, ages 15 and 16. He thought about her and them while the ocean was pulling him farther from dry land.
"I decided at that time that I'm going in," he said. "I was getting there. I'd studied survival (tactics)."
He swam parallel again, found another landmark and headed to shore. This time, the waves helped him get there. After he crawled out of the water, he lay on his back for 15 minutes.
"I was assessing my situation," he said. "I thought, 'Am I really here?' "
Jacobsen realized his mother was probably panicking, so he got back on his feet, walked the hundreds of feet back to stairway to State Road A1A and headed back to his mother's house.
He entered through the rear sliding door soaking wet.
Jacobsen shared his story of survival with his mother.
"He was so close to not coming back that night," said Bower, who lost her older son 38 years ago when he died in a motorcycle crash.
Throughout his life, Bower's son was a magnet for mischief and adventure. He's always liked challenging himself and living on the edge. From now on, he will no longer challenge the ocean and its unyielding power.
"I have a new respect for the ocean now," Jacobsen said.
He also has a hip further damaged as a result of his face-off with death.
Jacobsen promised his mother he will never get into the ocean unless he has a life preserver. If not, he's sticking with knee-level water and his feet firmly planted in the sand.
"I'm lucky to be alive," he said.