Yesterday in the midst of our heatwave at Ocean Beach, a group of five teenage friends went running hand-in-hand into the surf in swim trunks, and only three made it back to shore. As ABC 7 and the Chronicle are reporting, two boys, both 17, were swept out by a strong rip current and separated from their friends, and as of 9 p.m. the search for the missing pair was called off. They were both described by their friends as the weakest swimmers in the group, and they are presumed drowned.

This all happened around 4:20 p.m. when the Coast Guard received the first report of the missing boys just south of the southernmost windmill on the beach. A rescue effort that included air, land, and sea teams, including jet skis, lasted five hours, until sunset, but Fire Department spokesman Jonathan Baxter said that the Coast Guard estimates that the current could have potentially dragged the boys' bodies 15 miles offshore in that time.

He added, "Ocean Beach conditions on a good day are generally enough to pull a grown man into the water."

What's especially scary in the ABC 7 account is that the group was standing in waist-deep water when the boys were pulled out by the current.

No rescue effort will continue Sunday. National Park Service rescue staff are warning beachgoers today about the rip current, and according to a tweet, telling people to continue to keep an eye out for the missing boys.

The three surviving boys, two aged 17 and one 18, were taken to UCSF Hospital in stable condition.