Raymond R. Blanco Jr. and two friends drove from New York to Ocean City on Sunday morning to visit a friend who had a beach house there.

"We went on a whim," said Kevon Street, who has been friends with Blanco since they attended Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School in Manhattan, one of New York's prestigious specialized schools for music and the performing arts.

Blanco never returned to New York.

He drowned in the ocean on an unguarded beach at 56th Street shortly after 4 p.m. Sunday (Sept. 25). Witnesses say he began to struggle when he left a sandbar that dropped off quickly into deeper water.

A female friend, whom Street identified only as Rachel, and other people on the beach helped pull Blanco from the water. But he was not breathing, and attempts by beachgoers and emergency responders to resuscitate him were unsuccessful.

"Blanco was transported to the hospital but never regained consciousness and was pronounced dead shortly after the incident occurred," Ocean City Police Capt. Steven Ang said in a statement.

Street said the Ocean City house they were visiting was three blocks away from the beach where Blanco died.

He said Blanco, 27, was a talented musician with the alternative rock band ohnomoon. Blanco was single and lived in Brooklyn, Street said.

"He was extremly funny, and really, really smart," Street said.

He also remembered Blanco as a "a little hard-headed," someone who would battle to the end for something he believed in.

Blanco worked as an assistant music supervisor at Agoraphone, a New York company that helps find songs for TV commercials.

"He was an avid music fan, and a big part of his job was seeking out and listening to as much music as he could," said Beth Urdang, a music supervisor at Agoraphone. "To that end, he also helped maintain our large music library, and assisted in other areas such as music licensing and production."

Urdang said the following:

"We are terribly saddened by the news of Raymond's passing. He was an energetic presence, a music enthusiast, a talented musician in his own right, and a friend to all of us at Agoraphone. His warmth and humor will be missed tremendously. Our thoughts are with his family and friends, who love him greatly."

A post on the Facebook page for Blanco's band included the following:

"There is nothing that we can write to express the extent of our sorrow. We love you and miss you, we cannot believe that you are gone. Our thoughts are with your family and loved ones. We are heartbroken. To our friend, our brother, Raymond Blanco, may you rest in peace."

"He was the greatest," said Octavia Blanco, Raymond's mother. "And I guess the greatest don't live that long."

"He was a cool kid with mad dreams cut short, we will surely miss him very much," said Darwin Blanco, Raymond's older brother, the president of A Quest for Higher Learning in Houston, TX.

"Last week was my girl's birthday, and I didn’t get the chance to order her some roses, and when I told him, he without any thought to it said, 'How much should I get for her?' This is how he always was, willing to help whenever he could, and even if he couldn’t, he would try. I’m gonna miss that kid," Darwin Blanco said.

He also wrote:

"I sat here in front of my PC yesterday doing my assignments, and I told myself I was going to send my siblings a text telling them I love them like I do every month. I said I was going to do it as soon as I was finished with the first part of my assignment. I finished that and went straight into the second and third part, and around 8:30 p.m., I finished my assignment. Ten minutes, later my little sister called me to tell me he drowned. I didn’t get to send that text telling them how much I love them all. My heart hurts."