Fair enough. It's probably pretty safe to assume that most of the "swimmers" were in fact surfers, because tropical storm conditions aren't exactly conducive to doing laps.
The kid in the creek probably wasn't a surfer, unless pre-teen creek surfing is a new extreme sport I missed, and the 71-year-old ... well, I can't begin to figure what the hell he was thinking.
My impression is wholly subjective, but based on a fair number of observations. A lot of surfers head out to places like Cocoa and New Smyrna when a storm is on the way, because those fat 5' swells aren't easy to come by on the Atlantic coast. There are a lot of kids out there 1-2 days from landfall, but not many 0-1 days out.
Now, the folks who decide to ride out the storm on small craft, they're definitely suffering from more b--ls than brains.
It's the rip currents that are so dangerous in the coastal waters as the storm approaches. They'll take even the best swimmer away.