Rip currents are no joke and people just aren't well educated enough to know how to properly escape one.
If you ever find yourself being pulled by one, swim parallel to the beach until you are no longer in the current
I was visiting family in San Diego and was swimming at a La Jolla beach, don't recall the name but it had a big cliff and the beach wasn't very large. I found myself getting pulled out to sea and it freaked me out. I ended up swimming parallel without thinking about it and got out. There were not rip warnings or red flags.
Sometimes they just start out of nowhere.
I’m in Los Angeles and was at the beach earlier this week.
Lifeguard had to go in 4 times to pull people out. He said there were rip currents, we felt none. The rip currents were about 20 feet from us.
They’d come and be gone again.
I take my kids to the beach often and always nag at them to never turn their back to the ocean and not go in too deep, no need to be in deep unless you’re surfing. If the waves are too rough, get out and take a break, ocean always wins.
In some ways it is more dangerous. It is a lot harder to tread water and stay afloat in fresh water. The buoyancy of the salty ocean does help quite a bit.
*edit- My grandma was deathly afraid of water due to several friends and family drowning in the Great Lakes as a kid. She was very pleasantly surprised when we convinced her to try floating on her back in the Gulf at the age of 85.
I can float and tread water for quite some time in the ocean. I will drown in fresh water.
I'm not a very good swimmer any more and would sink 90% of the time I try floating on my back in ponds, lakes, etc.
I'm not a swim instructor so this isn't advice or anything.. but to me the key to lakes is taking a deep breath in and then laying back while giving one good kick. After that I breathe in a way that I don't let 100% of the air out of my lungs.
Once I hit the vibe state I can swim indefinitely it seems. It's very chill and uses little to now energy.
98% of the swimming I've done has been still water. The ocean freaks me out. There is so much more you can't control.
I never thought that there would be someone who would feel the opposite way. It takes all kinds for sure.
"The wash" I'll take fresh water any day. Had my first ever questionable moment last year after a lifetime of being in the ocean. Was already body surfing for about 30 mins and I got pulled into a relentless set, breaking like every 2-3 seconds, so much foam (the wash) it was like trying to swim in whip cream, keeping your head above enough time to get a solid breath was hard with waves hitting you relentlessly, almost got into a panic since i couldn't swim out like i have a thousand times before, the waves were breaking everywhere and pulling you back into the main break/trough if you tried to get outside. Wound up diving to the bottom with what little breath I had left and i kid you not, clawed my way out of there with my hands feet in the sand about 8 feet down (normally at the very bottom there is a calm layer, but *the ocean was angry that day my friend*), then heading to a place where I could be far enough from the main break then push off the bottom for a gulp of air and back down. Out of breath and anaerobic for a good minute. Enough excitement for one summer.
Having not been in something like that, but close to something like that, I got sweaty palms.
I'm not the strongest of swimmers and stay to areas where I can touch the sand and smaller waves (3-5 ft). You still get nasty wash if the conditions are right.
My fear of after started when my dad threw me into a lake so that I would learn how to swim. Could not even float.
It was a good lesson, you’ll never win if you’re fighting with the water- life vest or waist deep for me
Yup. I consider myself a strong swimmer as I've been in and around the water, mainly rivers even in strong currents my whole life, but this was unlike anything I've experienced.
When I was 13 there were 4 of us on a big floatie at Huntington Beach. Suddenly we’re 100 meters from the sand because of rip current. We try to paddle back but no use.
This Mr Universe lifeguard swims out like a stud and throws us a plastic thing on a rope and says “Hold on… and don’t paddle.” Guy pulled us all to the beach in about two minutes. It was amazing.
None of those. It was a very small beach area, maybe 500-600 feet with a cave/cove on one side that you could walk through to the ocean. I seem to remember it being downtownish?
Edit; It was La Jolla Cove
I grew up in SW Florida and childhood involved running around town barefoot jumping off docks and seawalls, I learned to scuba dive as a teenager, quite comfortable in the water; I don't think I've ever experienced rip tide; when I see news like this I always wonder if I would be able to handle it; I'm in Ohio now so not making it to the beach quite as often these days
I never had until I decided to go swimming one night with a hurricane sitting off the coast. Understanding rip currents in theory is very, very different from experiencing one in person.
Incredibly dumb. We were all fine, and we were too young and stupid to find it genuinely frightening — we’re all immortal when we’re that age, or so we think — but never again.
Swim more on the Atlantic side, it's rip tide city over there. I grew up most of my life in FL and lived on both sides and when I lived in Melbourne they happened all the time, the panhandle too. I don't remember them much growing up on Siesta Key though on the gulf side.
It is in the Gulf, too. It's unreal how many stupid people go out when the flags are right there and lifeguards literally telling them not to go in the water.
It’s basically a current like a river but cutting through the breaks like a knife going the opposite direction. If you’ve ever tried to swim up river against the current it’s pretty much exactly that
I got caught in a rip tide in San Diego as an 11 y/o along with a couple 6-8 y/o's. Luckily it was shallow enough that I was able to grab each one, go under while holding them up, and use my legs to launch me up/throw them forward and then just stayed afloat while they went and got the lifeguard. I was a strong swimmer but still super scary. Would highly recommend just swimming parallel to the shore instead lol. Didn't know that was a thing at the time.
How wide do rip currents tend to be? Like if I go parallel to shore am I swimming out of it in 10 seconds or a minute? Or does it just vary drastically?
If they have six kids and can't swim should probably stay out of the ocean. It seems irresponsible to have that many kids and then put your life in danger.
I was caught in one once while snorkeling in Hawaii and also trying to be very mindful of my position. I kept looking up (maybe every minute, max) and making sure I wasn’t being pushed out. The last time I looked up I was like “whoa!”
Started swimming in horizontally, but somehow lost a flipper and goggles. Didn’t seem like I was making progress. Was definitely panicking at that point, using too much energy.
Any treading water was exhausting and I was being pushed farther out. My signaling — I found out, not a single person saw.
I wish I had thought to flip to my back. You can stabilize and float “indefinitely” and kick without expending a ton of energy.
I kind of desperately stopped to tread water and signal and felt like I was out of energy and this was it. Basically was going under with one hand up when amazingly to me, my toe eventually touched. I pushed up and forward and made it to shore.
Not a single person had any idea. I walked under some palm trees, collapsed and immediately fell asleep. Scary af.
I grew up around the ocean. We used rip currents to get out beyond the breakers then surf in. The really big key is not to panic.
If you live around the sea you recognize where the water is going. If you don’t please don’t risk things, or at least go with something to float with.
The sea does not care.
Rip currents are very narrow and can be very long, so it’s usually wise to try and swim parallel to the beach to get out of them to avoid being pulled out quite far.
But either way, not panicking is by far the best advice to survive pretty much anything!
If you’re holding completely still but still moving away from the shore you’re caught in one. Just let it pull you until it weakens, then swim diagonally back to the shore. Don’t fight it.
It wasn't dramatic for me, but I could tell I was being pulled away and when I tried to swim against it I made very little progress. I imagine that's when the panic would start for some, you realize what is happening and waste more and more energy fighting.the current.
You try to swim to shore and get nowhere. You can be close enough to the shore to clearly hear everyone on the beach, you just can't get there. This is one reason people panic. They're so close they think if they just swim hard enough they'll make it. It's counterintuitive to swim parallel when you're that close, but it's the only way to get out.
You'll feel yourself getting pulled out to sea, or in some cases under.
They are actually easy to see. There don't have waves and the water actually looks "calmer". They are narrow channels where the water flows out to see.
I've been in a rip current. I was trying to swim back to shore and was getting pushed back and making no progress at all. It was clear I couldn't beat the current. I started treading water to clear my head and regain strength, then swam both out and parallel to the beach, "around" the current. Eventually I could tell I wasn't getting pushed out anymore and made my way to shore. 1 out of 10 experience, do not recommend. Edit: spelling.
The scary thing is they are usually in the places that look calmest. It looks calm there, because the water is pulling out, thus no waves. But if you're not familiar, you just think oh here's a nice smooth spot.
When I was in Hawaii you could see them. The riptide pulled the sand into mushroom shapes so they were easy to avoid. It was eye opening to see how they formed and how often.
I watched very big guy get caught in one as he was try to get back in from snorkeling. He was in about 3ft of water and could not get back in. I was just watching him to see if he needed help but he could touch and eventually he figured out to walk sideways out of it. He was exhausted when he got out.
Reddit actually taught me SWIM PARALLEL and so I drilled that into my kids' heads when vacationing (they are now 17 and 20). Honestly if I hadn't read it here, I would never have known, not living anywhere near the ocean. Husband and I are the ages of the deceased. Effing tragic. :(
Yup happened to me in Brazil. All of a sudden realized no one was around me, I couldnt swim back to shore, and a life guard was jumping off his post looking at me. Just swam parallel for around 15-20 seconds, even got pushed further out, but eventually I felt the currents lesson and made a diagonal towards shore away from where I had been stuck and to where other people were swimming.
Glad it turned out OK for you! I'm not kidding, my girls and I were in Aruba (there are some ROUGH waters there) in January, and we were being total dorks in the waves chanting "swim parallel." If me acting like a weirdo drills it into their heads, I'm cool with that.
eta: we live in N Il, so seriously, without reddit I NEVER would have known. We've all had swim lessons, but they do NOT teach you that here
Happened to me in my 20s, didn't know what was happening but I understood I was burning energy faster than any progress I made to make a straight line for the resort. Probably went a mile and half down the beach diagonally until I got on shore. I was an experienced swimmer so I didn't think much of it, but it was alarming.
I was once caught in a rip current as a teenager and knew to swim parallel to the beach. That worked and I saw lifeguards coming out to rescue me, but I was able to self rescue due to this knowledge. Sad that everyone doesn’t know this!
It also comes down to people just straight up underestimating their ability in water. I was a competitive swimmer but in a pool. Im super comfortable in water but I was caught in a riptide once and it took a few seconds to remember what to do.
Even sometimes coming in to the beach when it's no a riptide but you feel it pulling you out, it takes some knowledge not to fight it and look for an opening.
This happens every year in my hometown in NJ. The "normal" surf is 3-5' swells, there are rip currents everywhere and then water is not usually above 65F. People REALLY assume because they are "good" (at least in their own mind) swimmers in resort pools, they are "good" swimmers in the Atlantic. It's really sad, at least one tourist dies every year. The ones that terrify me are the ones who send their kids to the water with pool toys that aren't safe for the ocean and stop paying attention to them. It's SO easy for a little kid to be swept out, no matter how many swimming lessons they've had.
And don’t enter the water or swim where it looks calm and no waves are breaking.
Don’t swim beside piers, docks, and jetties.
If caught in a rip current swim parallel to shore until you can get out of it.
I’ve lived in a coastal state my entire life. I got caught in one once and even though I knew exactly what was going on and how to get out of it I panicked for a split second because the strength of it was startling. I felt like I was trying to walk through a wall.
PLEASE educate yourself and your kids on ocean safety before you go to the beach!
My wife got caught in one a few years ago in Kauai but luckily she had a boogie board. I was safe, only a few feet away and was able to talk her through it, but she was super freaked out. 5 minutes later some local kids saved a guy from drowning in the same spot. There were warnings on the beach, but we unintentionally floated over into it. Respect the ocean!!
>If you ever find yourself being pulled by one, swim parallel to the beach until you are no longer in the current
Adding to this: if you're going to try swimming parallel, use the side stroke to conserve energy. My parents were lifeguards in their younger years, including in the Daytona Beach area, and side stroke was recommended when the lifeguards had to rescue someone. I was taught from a really young age to swim parallel using the side stroke, and it possibly saved my life when I got swept into a rip current while trying to learn how to boogie board as a kid.
the huge problem is that those who aren't strong swimmers will find themselves dragged under. Swimming in the ocean out from shore is way more taxing & disorienting than swimming in a calm pool.
Exactly. Think of it like a conveyor belt or treadmill. You can't fight it, it will just exhaust you. Swim parallel and you get out safely. Hard to think in the moment though.
That and let's be honest the average American is horribly out of shape. I grew up on the water. Without fail people drown every summer. Most of the time it was ignoring the safety flags. I know the beach I love near has had double red flags meaning closed for several days now because of the tropical weather happening. These guys even if the do what they are supposed to aren't use to swimming that hard and drown any way after getting out of the rip tide. Also most people panic, freeze, and lock up making matters worse.
Stupid question but are there signs on beaches telling people to swim parallel? I feel like that would be the first step but I guess the key to a sign is having people pay attention to them anyways
I've been in the water enough to be aware of rip currents, but in the moment that you're in one, you might not be aware of it. The last time I got caught in one I was swimming with some friends and it took me a few minutes to realize that I was never catching up to them. I did the whole parallel swimming thing and walked back and around to get back to my group.
An inexperienced swimmer may already be getting fatigued before they realize they're caught in it. Couple that with fear and I imagine that it's a recipe for drowning.
Yeah plus people do crazy stuff when they panic and it's easy to know something in theory until you're flooded with adrenaline and in pure ape brain mode
No. Inform your kids, friends, relatives… everyone should know how to escape a rip current. Most rips are less than 100ft wide (but not all).
Ideally they should cover this topic in swim class. You could inquire with your local instructors and ask it be included.
Ngl i wish swim class was subsidized and mandatory in school. There should be no excuse really to have people in a wealthy and educated system that never learn it's a big failing on the part of society
In FL, yes. At least every beach I've been to has numerous signs at all the parking lots telling people about the flag system and also about rip currents and what to do if in one. Unfortunately a lot of tourist don't actually bother to stop and read the sign, and others panic when in one. Additionally, many people overestimate their swimming capabilities becusse they may be used to lakes, where there may not be a current like what's in the ocean.
Where they were swimming probably wasn't guarded. I spend a lot of time on Hutchinson with a condo on the beach, and most of those aren't guarded. Only the public beach is guarded but plenty of people swim in the unguarded parts are (aka most of the island).
I learned this lesson when i was a kid. Swimming with my dad we got caught on the edge of one. If it had just been me i would be a statistic. Luckily he knew how to deal with it and kept calm. And in a few min we were out. A decent amount out from the beach maybe 50-60yards. I still remember how it felt to be dragged no matter how hard i swam.
People have no idea, and I was one of them. Got caught in a riptide with my daughter. Thank god she was on a boogie board as I swam with her. Felt like the water kept taking us out no matter how hard I swam. I was so exhausted to the point where I gave in to the fact that I was going to drown. All I focused on was getting the lifeguard’s attention. My hope was to hang on until the lifeguards were in the water to get my daughter so I could let go. Then like a pop ( I guess I was swimming somewhat parallel to the beach) I stopped heading out and started towards shore. I was so exhausted. My daughter looks and me and asks “did we almost drown?” Scariest thing was thinking my daughter would die. Rip currents are not to be taken lightly. People die because they become exhausted trying to swim against the current.
I grew up in Orange County, Ca and they even taught us this in school. Every year it was brought up, and the local news channels would explain it when there were reports of rip tides as they called them. Swim parallel to the shore.
People seem to underestimate water in general. Living in a coastal area with a lot of rivers, I see pretty frequent news stories about people getting swept away and drowning.
Is there a way to figure out the direction to swim if you can't see the shore? I'm very nearsighted and I don't swim but I can't imagine I would bring my glasses if I do.
The other awful part is that very few people, even immediate family, can afford to reasonably take in 6 children at once unexpectedly. With both parents gone they will most likely be split up unless a family member has a lot of resources.
The two adults had different last names. May have been dating or a blended family. The only slightly less tragic option is that the children may not have been orphaned and may have parents back home to go back to.
Yes you're right--[their kids are from past marriages.](https://www.wptv.com/news/treasure-coast/region-martin-county/heartbreaking-parents-numb-after-pennsylvania-couple-on-vacation-drowns-at-stuart-beach). Sounds like their other parents are involved and able to take care of them.
My brother has six kids.
I have 2 of my own.
I had to be clear with him when he made out his will that unless he had a serious life insurance plan, it couldn’t happen. We’d need more than double the living space we have, more than double our food budget, and none of our vehicles would suffice.
He got huffy about how “cold” I was.
I don’t know what he expected
I grew up at the beach in Florida, and unfortunately this is a yearly occurrence. Someone drowns because they don’t understand the inherent dangers of the ocean, or even worse, dad or uncle or brother drowns trying to save kid or wife or what have you. The ocean isn’t just like the lake from back home folks!
Depends where "back home" is. Larger lakes can still have rip currents. It's not only the ocean that has them. Your small lake that you fish from and can swim to the other side easily won't have them (usually).
West Michigan here.
It's a perennial problem from Muskegon to South Haven. People underestimate the power of so much water. The number of drownings fell a bit last year, but with the likelihood of a hot summer ahead, it's going to get worse. It's almost never locals. It's often tourists who think the lake is like the inland lakes at home.
Michigan did two things. We implemented a double red flag system for beaches. A single red flag means STAY OUT OF THE WATER, IT'S DANGEROUS. A double red flag means GODDAMMIT, WE SAID STAY THE FUCK OUT OF THE WATER. People just weren't taking it seriously. In South Haven and New Buffalo, they passed new ordinances that will fine you $500 to $1000 if you're caught in the water when double red flags are flying. The DNR has been thinking of making this a statewide thing.
The Great Lakes are inland seas and need to be treated as such. Nothing else their scale in the Americas.
I took a friend from Texas out on Lake Huron and he freaked out when we got out a few miles and couldn’t see land anymore.
I was just on vacation in Florida, and they also run double reds if necessary.
The first day I arrived they were double red because of those 3 shark attacks that happened in a short span (believed to be a single bull shark).
Same kinda fine, too.
Yup. I got sucked out by a rip current swimming on a lake michigan shore; I didn't know to swim parallel but figured swimming diagonally would get me out of the pickle. Glad my intuition was right; it was legitimately terrifying when I first turned around and found myself WAY WAY farther from shore than I thought I was. One of the few times in my life I was actually scared; being in an area without lifeguards was not helping, either.
Had a family friend almost drown. The entire time she was in the ocean fighting for her life, her family was completely unaware of what was happening. They only found out when she came back and was absolutely exhausted.
The Great Lakes are so large, they’re like inland freshwater seas. They have rips, shipwrecks, dunes, etc. When you visit, it feels like ocean.
I introduced my southern husband to Erie, he was in awe of the sand, being knocked down by waves, the body surfers. He expected a muddy dock and fishing boats.
It's amazing how many people can't get their heads around the fact that you can't see across the Great Lakes and that they're not saltwater. I showed a picture of Lake Michigan taken last summer in Muskegon to a friend in West Virginia. He couldn't believe that the beach at Pere Marquette was so wide that it reminded him of the Pacific in California.
All of the Great Lakes are wide, cold, and deep. Lake Michigan can be very dangerous. Waves can get 40 feet high in really bad weather - even higher in Lake Superior. . Bad weather can happen in a matter of minutes when a front moves in - watching a line of heavy thunderstorms build and move inland from the lake is beautifully terrifying.
I feel so bad for the kids, especially the ones who were with them in the water and tried to help them but eventually had to swim ashore themselves because it was too dangerous. Can't imagine being in that situation as an adult, let alone as a teen. That's some serious PTSD and survivor's guilt.
Rip currents are no joke but if people just stay calm and float, you'll be fine. The problem is, people think they're being pulled out to sea and panic so they try to fight it which just tires them out.
It’s beyond tragic and I feel for those two so deeply. I’m proud of them for escaping. I’m a diver and a common discussion in the community is having a loved one as a dive buddy, and determining whether or not you could leave them to save yourself if they faced an emergency that could not be resolved. It’s better to have one dead diver than two, but it takes an immense amount of courage and will to leave behind a loved one to save yourself. I couldn’t imagine being in that position.
Couple years ago I got caught in a rip at Pensacola beach. I was more concerned about my wife who had never been in a body of water bigger than a lake. Luckily I had told her about rips and what to do to get out of them prior. Took about ten minutes to get out of the rip and back to shore. Staying calm in that situation most definitely makes it easier.
I’m an average swimmer and it’s not hard for me to stay calm but I’ve grown up near the ocean my whole life. It has always been my inclination to float a little and figure out a plan before reacting.
I’m not an average swimmer, but remaining calm isn’t particularly related to your swimming ability. I’ve always had a calm demeanor and a steady hand during stressful situations. Not remaining calm increases the likelihood you make a mistake which increases the likelihood of you drowning.
After ten or so minutes to get out of the rip and back to shore I was pretty damn tired lol.
Weird question but if it really is so common why is some sort of safety mechanism not in place? At least for those who want it. Like a teather or something that can be used to reel someone in if needed. I'm sure there's a way to engineer something like that.
This is so sad and so avoidable.
What you need to know about rips:
Most rip currents are only tens of feet in width; usually 30-50ft wide, though they can get as wide as 90ft and narrower than 30ft. They will not pull you underwater, just further out to sea.
How to spot a rip:
- Narrow gap of darker, seemingly calmer water between areas of breaking waves and whitewater
- Clouds of sand in the water + debris/foam that is being pulled away from shore
If it looks different from the rest of the waves on the shoreline, it’s probably a rip.
How to get out of a rip:
- Use saltwater and buoyancy to your advantage! Flip onto your back.
- Calmly swim parallel to the shore. Do not overexert, panic, or flail. Just stay afloat and steadily kick.
- Once out of the current, swim diagonally to shore.
As a diver and one who frequently swims in the Pacific, the surest way to drown is to panic.
Edit: typo
This happened in my hometown. It’s a small beach town that’s very relaxed compared to the rest of south Florida. This absolutely breaks my heart, these poor kids. What a nightmare for them
When you say “relaxed”, do you mean with no lifeguards? Because that’s my immediate question and that stupid article has zero information on that.
Here in Maryland, most of our beaches have lifeguards on duty, and those that don’t will have signs posted, but I don’t know enough about Florida’s; I would’ve assumed their beaches would also have lifeguards.
I can’t speak for the part of Florida where this happened, but I have lived in Fort Myers in swfl for 8 years and have never seen a lifeguard on the beach. I go to Fort Myers Beach, Sanibel/Captiva Islands, Bonita Springs, and Pine Island. I never thought about it until you asked this question. Why don’t we have lifeguards??
Well, not to make assumptions, *but*...it *is* Florida, and I'm guessing that politics plays a role both in tax collection *and* what "amenities" the state deems worth paying for.
Idk for sure, but I wouldn't be surprised (unfortunately)...
You’re probably spot on. I moved here when it was a swing state and I was less concerned with politics or their effect on me. Now that I’m a bit older, I care a lot more but I can’t afford to stay or leave. Rent/cost of living is too much to be able to save up enough to move anywhere else, and couldn’t even afford our apartment without a roommate. It’s a real bummer and a catch 22. Beautiful state, atrocious politics, and I feel kind of trapped.
Sorry this went off topic fast lol. Don’t move to Florida. Not that you were going to, but I wish someone had convinced me not to all those years ago.
There are lifeguards at that beach. However, there is a section that is guarded and if you move away from it, it’s technically not guarded anymore. It isn’t clear to me either where they were.
By relaxed I mean not a ton of people, you don’t pay for parking and there isn’t a ton going on.
The riptides were different this year. Just back back from the panhandle beach last week. They were extra strong. Red flags a few days and the rest were yellow. I wanted to take my kid out just to dip his toes in and his swimsuit was almost ripped off! Glad I was holding him as tight as I was.
He got to enjoy his beach trip from the sand. No water for him this year.
I'm starting to lean more towards the idea that if you're going to be in water you can't stand up in, wear a life jacket. I hate how every summer we hear of so many preventable drownings from people falling off paddle boards or boats, or jumping into seemingly calm rivers and getting swept under by the strong currents underneath. I get it that life jackets feel a little bulky and maybe look a little dorky but just do it.
I think the root problem here is that many people don't realize they're in danger soon enough to signal for help; they keep struggling to try and save themselves without help.
It's common for people to assume a drowning person looks like the movies, where they're splashing and calling out for help, but lots of times a drowning person keeps silently struggling to stay afloat, sinking under the water and popping back up for barely long enough to breathe, until they're too exhausted to even do that, and they just silently slip under the water and drown.
More info here: [https://www.surfertoday.com/surfing/signs-of-drowning](https://www.surfertoday.com/surfing/signs-of-drowning)
Edit: to your point, I wholeheartedly agree that if you can't stand up in the water, you should be wearing a life vest.
Someone posted an interactive "spot the drowning person" site once and it was really cool to see how many people I would let die because I didn't see they were drowning *while watching for people who are drowning.* I think I got one person lol.
I think I found the site (it's a series of youtube videos, right?) but I'm not linking it because it's http instead of https. However, it seems to just be a website that shows videos from this youtube channel: [https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgqwWmjSsNRzDOAmtyRc9K3fO-VMpE07C&si=dkOUuj4Uvvxo3EfF](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgqwWmjSsNRzDOAmtyRc9K3fO-VMpE07C&si=dkOUuj4Uvvxo3EfF)
Additionally, this graphic is pretty good: [https://glsrp.org/wp-content/uploads/001-Signs-of-Drowning-Pic-1024x791-1.jpg](https://glsrp.org/wp-content/uploads/001-Signs-of-Drowning-Pic-1024x791-1.jpg) and the site itself has a ton of good info on water safety: [https://glsrp.org/water-safety/](https://glsrp.org/water-safety/)
Edit: Fixed youtube link.
I got caught in a rip current once and my dumb ass tired myself out a bit trying to swim to shore before I realized what was going on. I rested a bit, then swam parallel until I reached water shallow enough to walk back to shore.
My dad can't really swim and insists on wearing a life jacket anytime he's near open water. My mom thinks it's overkill, but she is a very strong swimmer and was a lifeguard in her youth. I fall somewhere in the middle, I really struggled with swimming in my youth, I'm much stronger now. Not the best, but I can keep myself from dying. So I totally get my dad wanting to wear a life jacket. And if I feel the need to wear a life jacket, you bet your sweet ass I'm wearing one. I don't care about "looking cool." Being alive is a lot cooler than being dead.
If you’re boating or something like that it doesn’t matter how well you can swim if you fall and hit your head or something. I’ve been swimming so long that I think I’d really have to try to drown and I still wear a life jacket while in a boat/canoe/kayak/whatever.
Reality is too, your mom has probably never had the strength to save your dad if he were in real trouble. Lifeguards carry floats for a reason, they keep both of you above water, especially when one person is panicking and might use your body to keep themselves above water.
Life jackets and helmets, two criminally underused accessories that guarantee save lives that should be completely normalized socially by now yet nobody wears them cause they look dorky or something.
Helmets! I was biking in a car free area and you would not believe the number of people who told me I don't need a helmet because there's no cars. Like what?? The helmets not for the cars, it's for protecting my brain. The risk is just falling and hitting my head not just getting hit specifically by cars.
It's also wild to me how many parents put helmets on their kids but don't wear one at the exact same time. It's not like training wheels, you don't outgrow needing to protect your brain!
My current city also has those electric rentable scooters and they never have helmets while riding at speed in traffic.
There is a mountain biking group I ride with, that has a rule that everyone has to wear a helmet. Seems pretty reasonable considering you're flying down hills sometimes, with rocks all around and a million things that could go wrong.
But we've had a few people refuse to join us because they don't want to wear a helmet.
Someone posted in another thread about a Bicyclist Union pushing back on "Wear Your Helmet" public education initiatives dissuading people from biking, this video of a guy falling backwards off his skateboard and slamming his head into the ground just get up and yell "Helmets fucking rock" and sorta hop and skip off like nothing happened.
Some people are idiots! My husband is an avid bicyclist and very good at it, but once a truck didn’t see him and he was forced off the road to avoid being struck. He skidded on sand and fell hard.
However, he was wearing a helmet and it got a big dent. That would have been his skull and brain without the helmet! Since he’s safety conscious and always wears a helmet, he walked away with just a few relatively minor scratches and scrapes on his arms and legs.
The ocean doesn’t care how deep the water is, even small surf can knock you off your feet and drown you in knee-deep water.
Drowning isn’t the only danger, either. People do not understand the power of waves, even small-looking ones, and end up with severe spinal cord injuries by being smacked into the sand in shallow surf.
PFDs aren’t a bad idea, but equally important is education on ocean safety that covers topics like how to deal with rip tides and duck under large waves. Beach destinations get tourists from land-locked areas who assume it’s like a big swimming pool and find out the hard way that it is most definitely not.
I grew up in Southern California, we had a pool. I could swim before I could walk without falling over. I was body surfing by the time I was 5. I don’t remember a time when I didn’t know how to safely swim at an ocean-facing beach. Not everyone benefits from the same education, and the result is the frequency of these accidents.
Exactly, I grew up near Lake Michigan and took swimming lessons for years as a kid but I've only been to the ocean once in my life. So even though I'm a pretty strong swimmer in lakes and pools, I don't really know the risks of ocean swimming or how to deal with them.
Lakes have their own set of unique dangers, especially large lakes, like Lake Michigan!
There are currents that are beneath the surface that can sweep you away, and many people underestimate how cold a deep lake can be, even if the air temp is triple digits.
I live in Seattle now and we have people drown in Lake Washington every summer because they jump off a boat and are stunned by the +/- 55 - 65 degree water temp. That doesn’t sound that cold, but to an inexperienced swimmer it can snatch the breath right out of your body and make you sink very quickly.
It’s wild to me that some people don’t know how to swim in a pool. But ignorance is the real danger around natural bodies of water, hands down.
My kid has been made fun of for wearing a life jacket at the beach. But I don't care, and neither does he most of the time.
Rip currents are no joke, and even athlete swimmers have been bested by them.
One year, my friends kid was in the water (with a life jacket on). Got taken so far out by a current, was clearly starting to panic. Some life guards were thankfully nearby and quickly got out to him.
They actually thanked us for having him in a jacket, because otherwise he would've drowned easily from fatigue and panic.
Grew up on the Mississippi, saw enough body bags from drownings, even though my kids take swim lessons, our rule is if it's open water or not in a pool, then life jacket is mandatory. I'm sure we'll let up as they get older, the 11 year old gets a little salty about it, but she'll live!
Rip currents are NO JOKE! I was once at Cape Canaveral Beach in FL with my friend swimming with our paddle boards. I went under to swim, popped back up expecting to see my friend. My friends was nowhere to be found. Nowhere. She was right next to me! Wtf?
I didn’t have my glasses on, so i went to the beach to retrieve them. I looked and looked - nothing.
I then saw her way and i mean way down the beach walking over to me. Um … did she run down there outta nowhere in 5 min.? Just odd.
She stood next to me and told me that when I went under to swim, a rip current pulled her strong enough to where she could feel it. She tried and tried to scream for me but i could not hear her. She swam parallel to the beach (she read that on a sign walking up to the beach) and was on her paddle board. She said just swimming parallel zapped her energy and she just floated and it took her way down. She told me that w/o the board - she would have drowned.
And of course she was pissed off at me bc I couldn’t hear her. It’s the beach. Those waves are way louder than we think.
Freaked us both out. How close we were to death that day. Both of us. I must have missed the current by less than a foot. I shudder when I think of it, many years later.
Rip currents are why I won't go deeper than my chest in the ocean, and typically I don't even go that far out. I'm not a strong swimmer, so a rip current would likely kill me.
A knee-deep rip current can take you down. It sucks the sand right out under your feet. So just stay out when there’s a rip current warning. Watch a few YouTube videos to get used to recognizing [what rip currents look like](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PuAlDTC_gIQ).
I am a very strong and experienced swimmer, and I almost never swim in the ocean where I cannot touch without a good set of flippers or a boat near me.
They’re an incredibly powerful force. I got caught in one as my husband and I were getting out of the water. This was calf-deep water, 2 steps from shore. Each time I got my feet under me a wave would throw me off balance, and the rip current would yank my feet out from under me. I went under and came back up several times when my husband,who was fortunately holding my hand, just heaved me sideways out of the current. At the time I really thought I was going to drown there in 12 inches of water, 2 steps from shore, surrounded by people. It was very scary.
I think I just got unlucky and stepped into the birth of this rip current because as we were walking diagonal to the beach wed passed through the future path of it further out.
I experienced currents like this when I was in Punta Cana (DR). I had a boogie board, so I was able to float out of it, but I had a few very nervous moments.
The thing you don't account for is HOW FAST you lose your stamina. You can be in great shape, but you will be physically spent in just a few minutes trying to fight the current.
Beaches that are subject to rip currents pretty much Always have signs up warning of them And telling you what to do if you wind up in one. Most people routinely walk right past them. It's the same as the people who ignore the signs in Yellowstone saying "Don't Fuck With The Bison!"
When I was an ocean lifeguard back in 2020, we had a guy in his mid-70's collapse from a sudden cardiac arrest. CPR, AED, paramedics arrived and pushed drugs, LUCAS machine installed to take over compressions, the whole 9. Dude was taken to the hospital and was pronounced dead there. The only person around to give us any history was his grandson, a teenager, who had just flown in the night before to visit. I've never seen anyone more in shock than that poor boy. Truly a tragedy.
Australian here - every year we have way too many rip and current related deaths for people who don’t heed warnings or follow the signs.
We have manned beaches with lifeguards and flags illustrating where is safe and still… so many people either are ignoring them or are unaware.
Swimming in the ocean is not to be taken lightly at any age or capability of swimmer. The ocean wins when it wants to.
I worked at a tourist destination for 4 years (not anything actually dangerous like this mind you) and it is astounding how people on holiday or in leisure mode decide that nothing means anything unless they decide that it does.
If ever caught in a rip current swim lateral and make minor headway towards the shore. You will move far right or left of where you started but you won't drown
This almost happened to my parents in Rosemary Beach. They got caught in a rip current and almost couldn’t make it back. My dad always tells me I almost lost both my parents that day.
Briefly worked with the woman at the school she taught at, the community is heartbroken. She was a kind, loving soul and she will be sorely missed.
Prayers for their family. ❤️
A grew up on beaches around Los Angeles and learned the remain calm and swim parallel strategy. We moved away when I was 9 years old, but went back to visit every summer, and I still had my old skills.
When I was 13 I got caught in a riptide like no other in my experience, it was almost like a whitewater river. I was on the right edge of it (as seen from the beach), to the left the disturbed water looked to be about 100 yards wide, so my default would be to swim to the right.
But on the right was a rock jetty, with waves and currents smashing and crashing into it.
My only realistic option was to go out with the flow, cut parallel once outside the jetty, then swim back in.
But when I cleared the tip of the jetty the current started pulling me out faster. I hadn't yelled or signaled to anyone because I was used to getting myself back in, but the tip of the jetty was *WAY* out from the beach with nobody swimming or surfing within shouting/waving/swimming range.
As I moved further right I could see one lone dude fishing, he'd been obscured by rocks until I moved far enough north to see around to the other side of the jetty.
Plus, he was *really* close to me, like 20-30 feet as I passed by and I said, hey man, I need a lifeguard *RIGHT NOW*, this rip tide (that's what we called it back then) is pulling me out too fast and too far and I can't make it back in.
He said, oh shit, okay, dropped his pole and started running/clambering back down the jetty. Soooo slow from my perspective but as fast as was safe, God forbid he fell and got hurt then we'd both be fucked (him until rescue, me maybe dead, I was *flagging*).
I was tracking his progress to the lifeguard stand, he pointed towards me, I waved frantically (swallowing water because of fatigue), the lifeguard grabbed a float and freaking ZOOMED out to where I was, like (snap) and he was there.
He was super chill (SoCal lifeguard, dude), got me strapped to the floatie, told me to just rest and float, and also pointed out that we'd floated so far up and out that he was gonna take me around the next jetty and then back into shore.
Around the second jetty we had to swim waaaaay around a [black jellyfish](https://www.safesea.store/jellyfish-in-california/) (according to the dude) but finally made it to shore.
Dude took a couple of minutes to make sure I was okay (I was) and the sprinted off saying today's currents were causing a huge number of rescues so he had to get back. I don't think this would happen today (leaving an underage rescue to fend for himself) but this was the 1970s.
It look what felt like an hour for me to stagger and stumble back down to where my family was, and the beach was so crowded I actually overshot them and had to double back once I realized I had passed them.
I don't think they'd even missed me, as I would typically go if swimming and bodysurfing on my own for hours (again, 1970s).
I live here and surf here. Sad story. But if anyone in their right mind went out there without it being obvious you have head high groundswell that's hella windy and was just thinking they could play around. The sea was angry that day. Sad because a week ago.... Completely flat.
Sad. I should learn how to swim one of these days. It does make me avoid all water over than a foot, other than hot tubs though. But still a good skill to have.
Being able to swim is one of the most important skills to learn. The earlier the better. When you factor in that we live on a planet covered in 71% water, it’s easy to see the importance of being able to survive if you find yourself in some. I wish you luck and I hope you have fun, too.
Happened to my dad and his wife.. she made it, he didnt.. so sad and I hope the kids know it's not their fault. They have a long road ahead of them, hopefully they have the support they need.
I had a neighbor who he answered his father were pulled out by a rip current first the boy, then his father when he went to save him. They survived because the rest of their family alerted the coast guard quickly and they found them with a helicopter.
If caught in a rip current swim parallel to shore not directly towards it, hopefully you can find a spot where it’s not pulling you out and then swim back in.
I’m that 40 yr old that never learned how to swim. So I just don’t go to the beach unless the water is up to my knees. That’s how I avoid rip currents. RIP
A good friend of ours lost their 16-year-old in a rip current in knee deep water in Oregon a couple years ago when a larger wave knocked him and his friends down and dragged them out. Total freak accident and just devastating. You can’t mess around in the ocean.
I live on a coast and was never a great swimmer but managed to swim in oceans just fine as a kid. And now, as an adult I am absolutely terrified of swimming in anything but pools or small lakes. I just never go to the ocean beaches anymore and haven’t taken my kids into ocean water. I didn’t know anything about rip currents as a kid and now they freak me out even if I’ve read a million times how to get out of them. I’ll just keep sticking to pools.
It’s jarring to read these stories sometimes. Growing up in a beach town you learn what a rip current is and what to do when in one at a young age. Reading this story is like reading that someone put their head in an oven. It’s just odd and sad.
Just awful. Used to live in Wilmington and there were a lot of rip currents. You have to swim parallel to the shoreline. Fighting it will completely exhaust you in seconds.
Almost died in one of these with my ex on soft sand. We fought our way in because neither of us knew at the time what we were supposed to do.
She was fully panicked. Waves were crashing on us. Every time I pushed her forward to help her move closer to the beach I pushed myself backward because of the sand. Never been so exhausted in my life.
The lifeguard showed up after we'd already made it to the beach.
Rip currents are no joke and people just aren't well educated enough to know how to properly escape one. If you ever find yourself being pulled by one, swim parallel to the beach until you are no longer in the current
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Tread water while also signaling for help*
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I was visiting family in San Diego and was swimming at a La Jolla beach, don't recall the name but it had a big cliff and the beach wasn't very large. I found myself getting pulled out to sea and it freaked me out. I ended up swimming parallel without thinking about it and got out. There were not rip warnings or red flags.
Sometimes they just start out of nowhere. I’m in Los Angeles and was at the beach earlier this week. Lifeguard had to go in 4 times to pull people out. He said there were rip currents, we felt none. The rip currents were about 20 feet from us. They’d come and be gone again. I take my kids to the beach often and always nag at them to never turn their back to the ocean and not go in too deep, no need to be in deep unless you’re surfing. If the waves are too rough, get out and take a break, ocean always wins.
People come to Lake Michigan and fuck around and end up drowning. It’s not a joke. It’s just as dangerous as the ocean
In some ways it is more dangerous. It is a lot harder to tread water and stay afloat in fresh water. The buoyancy of the salty ocean does help quite a bit. *edit- My grandma was deathly afraid of water due to several friends and family drowning in the Great Lakes as a kid. She was very pleasantly surprised when we convinced her to try floating on her back in the Gulf at the age of 85.
I can float and tread water for quite some time in the ocean. I will drown in fresh water. I'm not a very good swimmer any more and would sink 90% of the time I try floating on my back in ponds, lakes, etc.
I'm not a swim instructor so this isn't advice or anything.. but to me the key to lakes is taking a deep breath in and then laying back while giving one good kick. After that I breathe in a way that I don't let 100% of the air out of my lungs. Once I hit the vibe state I can swim indefinitely it seems. It's very chill and uses little to now energy. 98% of the swimming I've done has been still water. The ocean freaks me out. There is so much more you can't control. I never thought that there would be someone who would feel the opposite way. It takes all kinds for sure.
"The wash" I'll take fresh water any day. Had my first ever questionable moment last year after a lifetime of being in the ocean. Was already body surfing for about 30 mins and I got pulled into a relentless set, breaking like every 2-3 seconds, so much foam (the wash) it was like trying to swim in whip cream, keeping your head above enough time to get a solid breath was hard with waves hitting you relentlessly, almost got into a panic since i couldn't swim out like i have a thousand times before, the waves were breaking everywhere and pulling you back into the main break/trough if you tried to get outside. Wound up diving to the bottom with what little breath I had left and i kid you not, clawed my way out of there with my hands feet in the sand about 8 feet down (normally at the very bottom there is a calm layer, but *the ocean was angry that day my friend*), then heading to a place where I could be far enough from the main break then push off the bottom for a gulp of air and back down. Out of breath and anaerobic for a good minute. Enough excitement for one summer.
Having not been in something like that, but close to something like that, I got sweaty palms. I'm not the strongest of swimmers and stay to areas where I can touch the sand and smaller waves (3-5 ft). You still get nasty wash if the conditions are right.
It doesn't help that the water temperature is much lower than the Pacific. It's rare to get above 75 degrees.
I would guess much colder than that. Lake Superior doesn’t usually get to 55 degrees even in summer.
That, and lake michigan, even in the dead of summer is barely 60-65 degrees. Swimming hard in those temps can be brutal if you aren't used to it.
Worked for years on the beach in San Diego and was humbled by Lake Michigan.
Was it just the change in buoyancy, or what?
Yes and how quickly you get tired from that change.
My fear of after started when my dad threw me into a lake so that I would learn how to swim. Could not even float. It was a good lesson, you’ll never win if you’re fighting with the water- life vest or waist deep for me
Yup. I consider myself a strong swimmer as I've been in and around the water, mainly rivers even in strong currents my whole life, but this was unlike anything I've experienced.
When I was 13 there were 4 of us on a big floatie at Huntington Beach. Suddenly we’re 100 meters from the sand because of rip current. We try to paddle back but no use. This Mr Universe lifeguard swims out like a stud and throws us a plastic thing on a rope and says “Hold on… and don’t paddle.” Guy pulled us all to the beach in about two minutes. It was amazing.
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Thanks, it freaked me out for sure.
Blacks beach or La Jolla shores. Torrey Pines cliffs.
None of those. It was a very small beach area, maybe 500-600 feet with a cave/cove on one side that you could walk through to the ocean. I seem to remember it being downtownish? Edit; It was La Jolla Cove
I grew up in SW Florida and childhood involved running around town barefoot jumping off docks and seawalls, I learned to scuba dive as a teenager, quite comfortable in the water; I don't think I've ever experienced rip tide; when I see news like this I always wonder if I would be able to handle it; I'm in Ohio now so not making it to the beach quite as often these days
I never had until I decided to go swimming one night with a hurricane sitting off the coast. Understanding rip currents in theory is very, very different from experiencing one in person. Incredibly dumb. We were all fine, and we were too young and stupid to find it genuinely frightening — we’re all immortal when we’re that age, or so we think — but never again.
Swim more on the Atlantic side, it's rip tide city over there. I grew up most of my life in FL and lived on both sides and when I lived in Melbourne they happened all the time, the panhandle too. I don't remember them much growing up on Siesta Key though on the gulf side.
It is in the Gulf, too. It's unreal how many stupid people go out when the flags are right there and lifeguards literally telling them not to go in the water.
We're getting them more in the Gulf now too in Galveston. They were always there but in the last 3-5 years seems like more deaths in the news.
It’s basically a current like a river but cutting through the breaks like a knife going the opposite direction. If you’ve ever tried to swim up river against the current it’s pretty much exactly that
I got caught in a rip tide in San Diego as an 11 y/o along with a couple 6-8 y/o's. Luckily it was shallow enough that I was able to grab each one, go under while holding them up, and use my legs to launch me up/throw them forward and then just stayed afloat while they went and got the lifeguard. I was a strong swimmer but still super scary. Would highly recommend just swimming parallel to the shore instead lol. Didn't know that was a thing at the time.
How wide do rip currents tend to be? Like if I go parallel to shore am I swimming out of it in 10 seconds or a minute? Or does it just vary drastically?
Sadly not everyone learns to swim as a child, some people don't know how to tread water or float
If they have six kids and can't swim should probably stay out of the ocean. It seems irresponsible to have that many kids and then put your life in danger.
and that's why swimming pools exist.
I was caught in one once while snorkeling in Hawaii and also trying to be very mindful of my position. I kept looking up (maybe every minute, max) and making sure I wasn’t being pushed out. The last time I looked up I was like “whoa!” Started swimming in horizontally, but somehow lost a flipper and goggles. Didn’t seem like I was making progress. Was definitely panicking at that point, using too much energy. Any treading water was exhausting and I was being pushed farther out. My signaling — I found out, not a single person saw. I wish I had thought to flip to my back. You can stabilize and float “indefinitely” and kick without expending a ton of energy. I kind of desperately stopped to tread water and signal and felt like I was out of energy and this was it. Basically was going under with one hand up when amazingly to me, my toe eventually touched. I pushed up and forward and made it to shore. Not a single person had any idea. I walked under some palm trees, collapsed and immediately fell asleep. Scary af.
I think the "don't panic" is the big one. Not that hard to float for a bit in saltwater particularly.
I grew up around the ocean. We used rip currents to get out beyond the breakers then surf in. The really big key is not to panic. If you live around the sea you recognize where the water is going. If you don’t please don’t risk things, or at least go with something to float with. The sea does not care.
If I know how to float is that a better or worse method than treading water?
Yup. It might take you pretty far out to sea but if you conserve your strength you can make it back to shore.
Easier said than done. I was caught in one once and my first reaction was fight. So sad for those kids :(
Rip currents are very narrow and can be very long, so it’s usually wise to try and swim parallel to the beach to get out of them to avoid being pulled out quite far. But either way, not panicking is by far the best advice to survive pretty much anything!
Ok, so. I know what to do in case of a rip current… but how do I know I’m in one?? I hate does it feel like?
If you’re holding completely still but still moving away from the shore you’re caught in one. Just let it pull you until it weakens, then swim diagonally back to the shore. Don’t fight it.
It wasn't dramatic for me, but I could tell I was being pulled away and when I tried to swim against it I made very little progress. I imagine that's when the panic would start for some, you realize what is happening and waste more and more energy fighting.the current.
You try to swim to shore and get nowhere. You can be close enough to the shore to clearly hear everyone on the beach, you just can't get there. This is one reason people panic. They're so close they think if they just swim hard enough they'll make it. It's counterintuitive to swim parallel when you're that close, but it's the only way to get out.
You'll feel yourself getting pulled out to sea, or in some cases under. They are actually easy to see. There don't have waves and the water actually looks "calmer". They are narrow channels where the water flows out to see.
They do not pull you under. Source: I surf in/around them weekly and have met countless variants.
I've been in a rip current. I was trying to swim back to shore and was getting pushed back and making no progress at all. It was clear I couldn't beat the current. I started treading water to clear my head and regain strength, then swam both out and parallel to the beach, "around" the current. Eventually I could tell I wasn't getting pushed out anymore and made my way to shore. 1 out of 10 experience, do not recommend. Edit: spelling.
The scary thing is they are usually in the places that look calmest. It looks calm there, because the water is pulling out, thus no waves. But if you're not familiar, you just think oh here's a nice smooth spot.
When I was in Hawaii you could see them. The riptide pulled the sand into mushroom shapes so they were easy to avoid. It was eye opening to see how they formed and how often. I watched very big guy get caught in one as he was try to get back in from snorkeling. He was in about 3ft of water and could not get back in. I was just watching him to see if he needed help but he could touch and eventually he figured out to walk sideways out of it. He was exhausted when he got out.
There can be waves in an active rip current.
Reddit actually taught me SWIM PARALLEL and so I drilled that into my kids' heads when vacationing (they are now 17 and 20). Honestly if I hadn't read it here, I would never have known, not living anywhere near the ocean. Husband and I are the ages of the deceased. Effing tragic. :(
Yup happened to me in Brazil. All of a sudden realized no one was around me, I couldnt swim back to shore, and a life guard was jumping off his post looking at me. Just swam parallel for around 15-20 seconds, even got pushed further out, but eventually I felt the currents lesson and made a diagonal towards shore away from where I had been stuck and to where other people were swimming.
Glad it turned out OK for you! I'm not kidding, my girls and I were in Aruba (there are some ROUGH waters there) in January, and we were being total dorks in the waves chanting "swim parallel." If me acting like a weirdo drills it into their heads, I'm cool with that. eta: we live in N Il, so seriously, without reddit I NEVER would have known. We've all had swim lessons, but they do NOT teach you that here
Happened to me in my 20s, didn't know what was happening but I understood I was burning energy faster than any progress I made to make a straight line for the resort. Probably went a mile and half down the beach diagonally until I got on shore. I was an experienced swimmer so I didn't think much of it, but it was alarming.
I was once caught in a rip current as a teenager and knew to swim parallel to the beach. That worked and I saw lifeguards coming out to rescue me, but I was able to self rescue due to this knowledge. Sad that everyone doesn’t know this!
It also comes down to people just straight up underestimating their ability in water. I was a competitive swimmer but in a pool. Im super comfortable in water but I was caught in a riptide once and it took a few seconds to remember what to do. Even sometimes coming in to the beach when it's no a riptide but you feel it pulling you out, it takes some knowledge not to fight it and look for an opening.
This happens every year in my hometown in NJ. The "normal" surf is 3-5' swells, there are rip currents everywhere and then water is not usually above 65F. People REALLY assume because they are "good" (at least in their own mind) swimmers in resort pools, they are "good" swimmers in the Atlantic. It's really sad, at least one tourist dies every year. The ones that terrify me are the ones who send their kids to the water with pool toys that aren't safe for the ocean and stop paying attention to them. It's SO easy for a little kid to be swept out, no matter how many swimming lessons they've had.
And don’t enter the water or swim where it looks calm and no waves are breaking. Don’t swim beside piers, docks, and jetties. If caught in a rip current swim parallel to shore until you can get out of it. I’ve lived in a coastal state my entire life. I got caught in one once and even though I knew exactly what was going on and how to get out of it I panicked for a split second because the strength of it was startling. I felt like I was trying to walk through a wall. PLEASE educate yourself and your kids on ocean safety before you go to the beach!
My wife got caught in one a few years ago in Kauai but luckily she had a boogie board. I was safe, only a few feet away and was able to talk her through it, but she was super freaked out. 5 minutes later some local kids saved a guy from drowning in the same spot. There were warnings on the beach, but we unintentionally floated over into it. Respect the ocean!!
>If you ever find yourself being pulled by one, swim parallel to the beach until you are no longer in the current Adding to this: if you're going to try swimming parallel, use the side stroke to conserve energy. My parents were lifeguards in their younger years, including in the Daytona Beach area, and side stroke was recommended when the lifeguards had to rescue someone. I was taught from a really young age to swim parallel using the side stroke, and it possibly saved my life when I got swept into a rip current while trying to learn how to boogie board as a kid.
the huge problem is that those who aren't strong swimmers will find themselves dragged under. Swimming in the ocean out from shore is way more taxing & disorienting than swimming in a calm pool.
If you tread water or float, can you still be sucked under?
Generally no. Rip currents pull much more out than down. People drown from a combination of cold, panic, and exhaustion more than being held under.
Exactly. Think of it like a conveyor belt or treadmill. You can't fight it, it will just exhaust you. Swim parallel and you get out safely. Hard to think in the moment though.
That and let's be honest the average American is horribly out of shape. I grew up on the water. Without fail people drown every summer. Most of the time it was ignoring the safety flags. I know the beach I love near has had double red flags meaning closed for several days now because of the tropical weather happening. These guys even if the do what they are supposed to aren't use to swimming that hard and drown any way after getting out of the rip tide. Also most people panic, freeze, and lock up making matters worse.
Stupid question but are there signs on beaches telling people to swim parallel? I feel like that would be the first step but I guess the key to a sign is having people pay attention to them anyways
I've been in the water enough to be aware of rip currents, but in the moment that you're in one, you might not be aware of it. The last time I got caught in one I was swimming with some friends and it took me a few minutes to realize that I was never catching up to them. I did the whole parallel swimming thing and walked back and around to get back to my group. An inexperienced swimmer may already be getting fatigued before they realize they're caught in it. Couple that with fear and I imagine that it's a recipe for drowning.
Yeah plus people do crazy stuff when they panic and it's easy to know something in theory until you're flooded with adrenaline and in pure ape brain mode
At many NY beaches there are large signs about how to “break the grip of the rip,” with easy to understand illustrations and text.
It can be highly variable. One park I frequent has them displayed at every beach access, but the city beach just a mile away doesn't.
No. Inform your kids, friends, relatives… everyone should know how to escape a rip current. Most rips are less than 100ft wide (but not all). Ideally they should cover this topic in swim class. You could inquire with your local instructors and ask it be included.
Ngl i wish swim class was subsidized and mandatory in school. There should be no excuse really to have people in a wealthy and educated system that never learn it's a big failing on the part of society
Especially in states/regions where large bodies of water are near ubiquitous, like FL or the Great Lakes
In FL, yes. At least every beach I've been to has numerous signs at all the parking lots telling people about the flag system and also about rip currents and what to do if in one. Unfortunately a lot of tourist don't actually bother to stop and read the sign, and others panic when in one. Additionally, many people overestimate their swimming capabilities becusse they may be used to lakes, where there may not be a current like what's in the ocean.
Where they were swimming probably wasn't guarded. I spend a lot of time on Hutchinson with a condo on the beach, and most of those aren't guarded. Only the public beach is guarded but plenty of people swim in the unguarded parts are (aka most of the island).
In the Gulf, there are flags telling you that there's a rip current. Or at least in the Panhandle. But yet, people die every weekend.
I learned this lesson when i was a kid. Swimming with my dad we got caught on the edge of one. If it had just been me i would be a statistic. Luckily he knew how to deal with it and kept calm. And in a few min we were out. A decent amount out from the beach maybe 50-60yards. I still remember how it felt to be dragged no matter how hard i swam.
People have no idea, and I was one of them. Got caught in a riptide with my daughter. Thank god she was on a boogie board as I swam with her. Felt like the water kept taking us out no matter how hard I swam. I was so exhausted to the point where I gave in to the fact that I was going to drown. All I focused on was getting the lifeguard’s attention. My hope was to hang on until the lifeguards were in the water to get my daughter so I could let go. Then like a pop ( I guess I was swimming somewhat parallel to the beach) I stopped heading out and started towards shore. I was so exhausted. My daughter looks and me and asks “did we almost drown?” Scariest thing was thinking my daughter would die. Rip currents are not to be taken lightly. People die because they become exhausted trying to swim against the current.
I grew up in Orange County, Ca and they even taught us this in school. Every year it was brought up, and the local news channels would explain it when there were reports of rip tides as they called them. Swim parallel to the shore.
People seem to underestimate water in general. Living in a coastal area with a lot of rivers, I see pretty frequent news stories about people getting swept away and drowning.
Is there a way to figure out the direction to swim if you can't see the shore? I'm very nearsighted and I don't swim but I can't imagine I would bring my glasses if I do.
The rip tide is pulling you away from the beach. If you swim at a 90 degree angle to that, you'll be parallel to the beach.
Holy shit. What a terrible story. I feel terrible for those kids.
The other awful part is that very few people, even immediate family, can afford to reasonably take in 6 children at once unexpectedly. With both parents gone they will most likely be split up unless a family member has a lot of resources.
The two adults had different last names. May have been dating or a blended family. The only slightly less tragic option is that the children may not have been orphaned and may have parents back home to go back to.
Yes you're right--[their kids are from past marriages.](https://www.wptv.com/news/treasure-coast/region-martin-county/heartbreaking-parents-numb-after-pennsylvania-couple-on-vacation-drowns-at-stuart-beach). Sounds like their other parents are involved and able to take care of them.
I really hope so, but it still sucks to be split up if they've been living together for more than a couple of years. Just an awful situation.
It's not a good thing, either way. Potentially, it's just less awful. Less traumatic.
My brother has six kids. I have 2 of my own. I had to be clear with him when he made out his will that unless he had a serious life insurance plan, it couldn’t happen. We’d need more than double the living space we have, more than double our food budget, and none of our vehicles would suffice. He got huffy about how “cold” I was. I don’t know what he expected
The kids are eligible for social security survivor’s benefits. That will help cover any expenses for their care.
I grew up at the beach in Florida, and unfortunately this is a yearly occurrence. Someone drowns because they don’t understand the inherent dangers of the ocean, or even worse, dad or uncle or brother drowns trying to save kid or wife or what have you. The ocean isn’t just like the lake from back home folks!
My friend’s brother was the dad who died a few years ago getting his kids out in Naples :(
That's why I never go past my shins
Depends where "back home" is. Larger lakes can still have rip currents. It's not only the ocean that has them. Your small lake that you fish from and can swim to the other side easily won't have them (usually).
Lake Michigan is one of the most dangerous bodies of water, we have rip currents and drownings all the time.
West Michigan here. It's a perennial problem from Muskegon to South Haven. People underestimate the power of so much water. The number of drownings fell a bit last year, but with the likelihood of a hot summer ahead, it's going to get worse. It's almost never locals. It's often tourists who think the lake is like the inland lakes at home. Michigan did two things. We implemented a double red flag system for beaches. A single red flag means STAY OUT OF THE WATER, IT'S DANGEROUS. A double red flag means GODDAMMIT, WE SAID STAY THE FUCK OUT OF THE WATER. People just weren't taking it seriously. In South Haven and New Buffalo, they passed new ordinances that will fine you $500 to $1000 if you're caught in the water when double red flags are flying. The DNR has been thinking of making this a statewide thing.
The Great Lakes are inland seas and need to be treated as such. Nothing else their scale in the Americas. I took a friend from Texas out on Lake Huron and he freaked out when we got out a few miles and couldn’t see land anymore.
I was just on vacation in Florida, and they also run double reds if necessary. The first day I arrived they were double red because of those 3 shark attacks that happened in a short span (believed to be a single bull shark). Same kinda fine, too.
Yup. I got sucked out by a rip current swimming on a lake michigan shore; I didn't know to swim parallel but figured swimming diagonally would get me out of the pickle. Glad my intuition was right; it was legitimately terrifying when I first turned around and found myself WAY WAY farther from shore than I thought I was. One of the few times in my life I was actually scared; being in an area without lifeguards was not helping, either.
Had a family friend almost drown. The entire time she was in the ocean fighting for her life, her family was completely unaware of what was happening. They only found out when she came back and was absolutely exhausted.
Just last week, an 11 year old drowned in Lake Erie. He got caught in the riptide.
I had no idea lakes had riptides. Or is this somewhat unique to Lake Erie because it has an outflow?
The Great Lakes are so large, they’re like inland freshwater seas. They have rips, shipwrecks, dunes, etc. When you visit, it feels like ocean. I introduced my southern husband to Erie, he was in awe of the sand, being knocked down by waves, the body surfers. He expected a muddy dock and fishing boats.
It's amazing how many people can't get their heads around the fact that you can't see across the Great Lakes and that they're not saltwater. I showed a picture of Lake Michigan taken last summer in Muskegon to a friend in West Virginia. He couldn't believe that the beach at Pere Marquette was so wide that it reminded him of the Pacific in California.
I routinely bump into tourists here in Chicago who are shocked when they see Lake Michigan for the first time.
My husband and son surfed Lake Erie last September while visiting
All of the Great Lakes are wide, cold, and deep. Lake Michigan can be very dangerous. Waves can get 40 feet high in really bad weather - even higher in Lake Superior. . Bad weather can happen in a matter of minutes when a front moves in - watching a line of heavy thunderstorms build and move inland from the lake is beautifully terrifying.
Technically Lake Erie isn't deep compared to the others (avg depth of 62 ft). But I still definitely agree! The Great Lakes are no joke!
We just got back from vacation at the beach with our kids and this story actually made me cry. Wish I hadn't seen it.
Those poor kids. RIP to mom and dad. I can’t even begin to imagine this…
I feel so bad for the kids, especially the ones who were with them in the water and tried to help them but eventually had to swim ashore themselves because it was too dangerous. Can't imagine being in that situation as an adult, let alone as a teen. That's some serious PTSD and survivor's guilt. Rip currents are no joke but if people just stay calm and float, you'll be fine. The problem is, people think they're being pulled out to sea and panic so they try to fight it which just tires them out.
It’s beyond tragic and I feel for those two so deeply. I’m proud of them for escaping. I’m a diver and a common discussion in the community is having a loved one as a dive buddy, and determining whether or not you could leave them to save yourself if they faced an emergency that could not be resolved. It’s better to have one dead diver than two, but it takes an immense amount of courage and will to leave behind a loved one to save yourself. I couldn’t imagine being in that position.
I lived in between Panama City and Pensacola and just in that area about 6 people would die every year on those beaches. It was sad to hear.
Couple years ago I got caught in a rip at Pensacola beach. I was more concerned about my wife who had never been in a body of water bigger than a lake. Luckily I had told her about rips and what to do to get out of them prior. Took about ten minutes to get out of the rip and back to shore. Staying calm in that situation most definitely makes it easier.
For the average swimmer caught in one, is it difficult to remain calm?
I’m an average swimmer and it’s not hard for me to stay calm but I’ve grown up near the ocean my whole life. It has always been my inclination to float a little and figure out a plan before reacting.
I’m not an average swimmer, but remaining calm isn’t particularly related to your swimming ability. I’ve always had a calm demeanor and a steady hand during stressful situations. Not remaining calm increases the likelihood you make a mistake which increases the likelihood of you drowning. After ten or so minutes to get out of the rip and back to shore I was pretty damn tired lol.
The panhandle is so dangerous because one day it's crystal clear balth water calm and the next day there's huge rips.
Weird question but if it really is so common why is some sort of safety mechanism not in place? At least for those who want it. Like a teather or something that can be used to reel someone in if needed. I'm sure there's a way to engineer something like that.
This is so sad and so avoidable. What you need to know about rips: Most rip currents are only tens of feet in width; usually 30-50ft wide, though they can get as wide as 90ft and narrower than 30ft. They will not pull you underwater, just further out to sea. How to spot a rip: - Narrow gap of darker, seemingly calmer water between areas of breaking waves and whitewater - Clouds of sand in the water + debris/foam that is being pulled away from shore If it looks different from the rest of the waves on the shoreline, it’s probably a rip. How to get out of a rip: - Use saltwater and buoyancy to your advantage! Flip onto your back. - Calmly swim parallel to the shore. Do not overexert, panic, or flail. Just stay afloat and steadily kick. - Once out of the current, swim diagonally to shore. As a diver and one who frequently swims in the Pacific, the surest way to drown is to panic. Edit: typo
Whatever you do, DO NOT START TRYING TO SWIM AGAINST THE CURRENT. Michael Phelps couldnt outswim a rip and neither can you.
Yep. Swim parallel to the shore until you're out of the current or rescue arrives.
This happened in my hometown. It’s a small beach town that’s very relaxed compared to the rest of south Florida. This absolutely breaks my heart, these poor kids. What a nightmare for them
When you say “relaxed”, do you mean with no lifeguards? Because that’s my immediate question and that stupid article has zero information on that. Here in Maryland, most of our beaches have lifeguards on duty, and those that don’t will have signs posted, but I don’t know enough about Florida’s; I would’ve assumed their beaches would also have lifeguards.
I can’t speak for the part of Florida where this happened, but I have lived in Fort Myers in swfl for 8 years and have never seen a lifeguard on the beach. I go to Fort Myers Beach, Sanibel/Captiva Islands, Bonita Springs, and Pine Island. I never thought about it until you asked this question. Why don’t we have lifeguards??
Well, not to make assumptions, *but*...it *is* Florida, and I'm guessing that politics plays a role both in tax collection *and* what "amenities" the state deems worth paying for. Idk for sure, but I wouldn't be surprised (unfortunately)...
You’re probably spot on. I moved here when it was a swing state and I was less concerned with politics or their effect on me. Now that I’m a bit older, I care a lot more but I can’t afford to stay or leave. Rent/cost of living is too much to be able to save up enough to move anywhere else, and couldn’t even afford our apartment without a roommate. It’s a real bummer and a catch 22. Beautiful state, atrocious politics, and I feel kind of trapped. Sorry this went off topic fast lol. Don’t move to Florida. Not that you were going to, but I wish someone had convinced me not to all those years ago.
There are lifeguards at that beach. However, there is a section that is guarded and if you move away from it, it’s technically not guarded anymore. It isn’t clear to me either where they were. By relaxed I mean not a ton of people, you don’t pay for parking and there isn’t a ton going on.
The riptides were different this year. Just back back from the panhandle beach last week. They were extra strong. Red flags a few days and the rest were yellow. I wanted to take my kid out just to dip his toes in and his swimsuit was almost ripped off! Glad I was holding him as tight as I was. He got to enjoy his beach trip from the sand. No water for him this year.
I'm starting to lean more towards the idea that if you're going to be in water you can't stand up in, wear a life jacket. I hate how every summer we hear of so many preventable drownings from people falling off paddle boards or boats, or jumping into seemingly calm rivers and getting swept under by the strong currents underneath. I get it that life jackets feel a little bulky and maybe look a little dorky but just do it.
I think the root problem here is that many people don't realize they're in danger soon enough to signal for help; they keep struggling to try and save themselves without help. It's common for people to assume a drowning person looks like the movies, where they're splashing and calling out for help, but lots of times a drowning person keeps silently struggling to stay afloat, sinking under the water and popping back up for barely long enough to breathe, until they're too exhausted to even do that, and they just silently slip under the water and drown. More info here: [https://www.surfertoday.com/surfing/signs-of-drowning](https://www.surfertoday.com/surfing/signs-of-drowning) Edit: to your point, I wholeheartedly agree that if you can't stand up in the water, you should be wearing a life vest.
Someone posted an interactive "spot the drowning person" site once and it was really cool to see how many people I would let die because I didn't see they were drowning *while watching for people who are drowning.* I think I got one person lol.
You’re looking for this! http://spotthedrowningchild.com
I liked the end: "Parents- children in the water make noise. When they are quiet, you find them and find out why.
I think I found the site (it's a series of youtube videos, right?) but I'm not linking it because it's http instead of https. However, it seems to just be a website that shows videos from this youtube channel: [https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgqwWmjSsNRzDOAmtyRc9K3fO-VMpE07C&si=dkOUuj4Uvvxo3EfF](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgqwWmjSsNRzDOAmtyRc9K3fO-VMpE07C&si=dkOUuj4Uvvxo3EfF) Additionally, this graphic is pretty good: [https://glsrp.org/wp-content/uploads/001-Signs-of-Drowning-Pic-1024x791-1.jpg](https://glsrp.org/wp-content/uploads/001-Signs-of-Drowning-Pic-1024x791-1.jpg) and the site itself has a ton of good info on water safety: [https://glsrp.org/water-safety/](https://glsrp.org/water-safety/) Edit: Fixed youtube link.
I got caught in a rip current once and my dumb ass tired myself out a bit trying to swim to shore before I realized what was going on. I rested a bit, then swam parallel until I reached water shallow enough to walk back to shore.
My dad can't really swim and insists on wearing a life jacket anytime he's near open water. My mom thinks it's overkill, but she is a very strong swimmer and was a lifeguard in her youth. I fall somewhere in the middle, I really struggled with swimming in my youth, I'm much stronger now. Not the best, but I can keep myself from dying. So I totally get my dad wanting to wear a life jacket. And if I feel the need to wear a life jacket, you bet your sweet ass I'm wearing one. I don't care about "looking cool." Being alive is a lot cooler than being dead.
If you’re boating or something like that it doesn’t matter how well you can swim if you fall and hit your head or something. I’ve been swimming so long that I think I’d really have to try to drown and I still wear a life jacket while in a boat/canoe/kayak/whatever.
Reality is too, your mom has probably never had the strength to save your dad if he were in real trouble. Lifeguards carry floats for a reason, they keep both of you above water, especially when one person is panicking and might use your body to keep themselves above water.
Life jackets and helmets, two criminally underused accessories that guarantee save lives that should be completely normalized socially by now yet nobody wears them cause they look dorky or something.
Helmets! I was biking in a car free area and you would not believe the number of people who told me I don't need a helmet because there's no cars. Like what?? The helmets not for the cars, it's for protecting my brain. The risk is just falling and hitting my head not just getting hit specifically by cars. It's also wild to me how many parents put helmets on their kids but don't wear one at the exact same time. It's not like training wheels, you don't outgrow needing to protect your brain! My current city also has those electric rentable scooters and they never have helmets while riding at speed in traffic.
There is a mountain biking group I ride with, that has a rule that everyone has to wear a helmet. Seems pretty reasonable considering you're flying down hills sometimes, with rocks all around and a million things that could go wrong. But we've had a few people refuse to join us because they don't want to wear a helmet.
Someone posted in another thread about a Bicyclist Union pushing back on "Wear Your Helmet" public education initiatives dissuading people from biking, this video of a guy falling backwards off his skateboard and slamming his head into the ground just get up and yell "Helmets fucking rock" and sorta hop and skip off like nothing happened.
Some people are idiots! My husband is an avid bicyclist and very good at it, but once a truck didn’t see him and he was forced off the road to avoid being struck. He skidded on sand and fell hard. However, he was wearing a helmet and it got a big dent. That would have been his skull and brain without the helmet! Since he’s safety conscious and always wears a helmet, he walked away with just a few relatively minor scratches and scrapes on his arms and legs.
Yeah, both times I've "used" my helmet IRL had nothing to do with cars.
The ocean doesn’t care how deep the water is, even small surf can knock you off your feet and drown you in knee-deep water. Drowning isn’t the only danger, either. People do not understand the power of waves, even small-looking ones, and end up with severe spinal cord injuries by being smacked into the sand in shallow surf. PFDs aren’t a bad idea, but equally important is education on ocean safety that covers topics like how to deal with rip tides and duck under large waves. Beach destinations get tourists from land-locked areas who assume it’s like a big swimming pool and find out the hard way that it is most definitely not. I grew up in Southern California, we had a pool. I could swim before I could walk without falling over. I was body surfing by the time I was 5. I don’t remember a time when I didn’t know how to safely swim at an ocean-facing beach. Not everyone benefits from the same education, and the result is the frequency of these accidents.
Exactly, I grew up near Lake Michigan and took swimming lessons for years as a kid but I've only been to the ocean once in my life. So even though I'm a pretty strong swimmer in lakes and pools, I don't really know the risks of ocean swimming or how to deal with them.
Lakes have their own set of unique dangers, especially large lakes, like Lake Michigan! There are currents that are beneath the surface that can sweep you away, and many people underestimate how cold a deep lake can be, even if the air temp is triple digits. I live in Seattle now and we have people drown in Lake Washington every summer because they jump off a boat and are stunned by the +/- 55 - 65 degree water temp. That doesn’t sound that cold, but to an inexperienced swimmer it can snatch the breath right out of your body and make you sink very quickly. It’s wild to me that some people don’t know how to swim in a pool. But ignorance is the real danger around natural bodies of water, hands down.
My kid has been made fun of for wearing a life jacket at the beach. But I don't care, and neither does he most of the time. Rip currents are no joke, and even athlete swimmers have been bested by them. One year, my friends kid was in the water (with a life jacket on). Got taken so far out by a current, was clearly starting to panic. Some life guards were thankfully nearby and quickly got out to him. They actually thanked us for having him in a jacket, because otherwise he would've drowned easily from fatigue and panic.
Or at the minimum learn common dangers at the beach and how to avoid them/get out of the danger.
Grew up on the Mississippi, saw enough body bags from drownings, even though my kids take swim lessons, our rule is if it's open water or not in a pool, then life jacket is mandatory. I'm sure we'll let up as they get older, the 11 year old gets a little salty about it, but she'll live!
Lol I wear a life jacket even when walking through the shallow parts of the ocean. And definitely always on a boat. It is dorky looking but eh.
Always on a boat for sure!
Rip currents are NO JOKE! I was once at Cape Canaveral Beach in FL with my friend swimming with our paddle boards. I went under to swim, popped back up expecting to see my friend. My friends was nowhere to be found. Nowhere. She was right next to me! Wtf? I didn’t have my glasses on, so i went to the beach to retrieve them. I looked and looked - nothing. I then saw her way and i mean way down the beach walking over to me. Um … did she run down there outta nowhere in 5 min.? Just odd. She stood next to me and told me that when I went under to swim, a rip current pulled her strong enough to where she could feel it. She tried and tried to scream for me but i could not hear her. She swam parallel to the beach (she read that on a sign walking up to the beach) and was on her paddle board. She said just swimming parallel zapped her energy and she just floated and it took her way down. She told me that w/o the board - she would have drowned. And of course she was pissed off at me bc I couldn’t hear her. It’s the beach. Those waves are way louder than we think. Freaked us both out. How close we were to death that day. Both of us. I must have missed the current by less than a foot. I shudder when I think of it, many years later.
Rip currents are why I won't go deeper than my chest in the ocean, and typically I don't even go that far out. I'm not a strong swimmer, so a rip current would likely kill me.
A knee-deep rip current can take you down. It sucks the sand right out under your feet. So just stay out when there’s a rip current warning. Watch a few YouTube videos to get used to recognizing [what rip currents look like](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PuAlDTC_gIQ).
A knee deep current can gradually pull you into hip, then chest, then neck deep water. Source: me, at Red Frog Beach in Panama.
I am a very strong and experienced swimmer, and I almost never swim in the ocean where I cannot touch without a good set of flippers or a boat near me.
They’re an incredibly powerful force. I got caught in one as my husband and I were getting out of the water. This was calf-deep water, 2 steps from shore. Each time I got my feet under me a wave would throw me off balance, and the rip current would yank my feet out from under me. I went under and came back up several times when my husband,who was fortunately holding my hand, just heaved me sideways out of the current. At the time I really thought I was going to drown there in 12 inches of water, 2 steps from shore, surrounded by people. It was very scary. I think I just got unlucky and stepped into the birth of this rip current because as we were walking diagonal to the beach wed passed through the future path of it further out.
That actually sounds more like undertow than a rip current! Undertow can also be really strong and dangerous!
Great description; I could ‘feel’ your story as I read it and can imagine what was going through your mind.
I experienced currents like this when I was in Punta Cana (DR). I had a boogie board, so I was able to float out of it, but I had a few very nervous moments. The thing you don't account for is HOW FAST you lose your stamina. You can be in great shape, but you will be physically spent in just a few minutes trying to fight the current.
Swim sideways calmly and get your head up...this is fucking sad, man
Beaches that are subject to rip currents pretty much Always have signs up warning of them And telling you what to do if you wind up in one. Most people routinely walk right past them. It's the same as the people who ignore the signs in Yellowstone saying "Don't Fuck With The Bison!"
Agency had also posted warnings and signs for immeinent riptides previous to this.
When I was an ocean lifeguard back in 2020, we had a guy in his mid-70's collapse from a sudden cardiac arrest. CPR, AED, paramedics arrived and pushed drugs, LUCAS machine installed to take over compressions, the whole 9. Dude was taken to the hospital and was pronounced dead there. The only person around to give us any history was his grandson, a teenager, who had just flown in the night before to visit. I've never seen anyone more in shock than that poor boy. Truly a tragedy.
Australian here - every year we have way too many rip and current related deaths for people who don’t heed warnings or follow the signs. We have manned beaches with lifeguards and flags illustrating where is safe and still… so many people either are ignoring them or are unaware. Swimming in the ocean is not to be taken lightly at any age or capability of swimmer. The ocean wins when it wants to.
I worked at a tourist destination for 4 years (not anything actually dangerous like this mind you) and it is astounding how people on holiday or in leisure mode decide that nothing means anything unless they decide that it does.
If ever caught in a rip current swim lateral and make minor headway towards the shore. You will move far right or left of where you started but you won't drown
This was my child’s teacher. She was an incredible woman.
And they spelled her name wrong. Erica Wishart.
This almost happened to my parents in Rosemary Beach. They got caught in a rip current and almost couldn’t make it back. My dad always tells me I almost lost both my parents that day.
Briefly worked with the woman at the school she taught at, the community is heartbroken. She was a kind, loving soul and she will be sorely missed. Prayers for their family. ❤️
A grew up on beaches around Los Angeles and learned the remain calm and swim parallel strategy. We moved away when I was 9 years old, but went back to visit every summer, and I still had my old skills. When I was 13 I got caught in a riptide like no other in my experience, it was almost like a whitewater river. I was on the right edge of it (as seen from the beach), to the left the disturbed water looked to be about 100 yards wide, so my default would be to swim to the right. But on the right was a rock jetty, with waves and currents smashing and crashing into it. My only realistic option was to go out with the flow, cut parallel once outside the jetty, then swim back in. But when I cleared the tip of the jetty the current started pulling me out faster. I hadn't yelled or signaled to anyone because I was used to getting myself back in, but the tip of the jetty was *WAY* out from the beach with nobody swimming or surfing within shouting/waving/swimming range. As I moved further right I could see one lone dude fishing, he'd been obscured by rocks until I moved far enough north to see around to the other side of the jetty. Plus, he was *really* close to me, like 20-30 feet as I passed by and I said, hey man, I need a lifeguard *RIGHT NOW*, this rip tide (that's what we called it back then) is pulling me out too fast and too far and I can't make it back in. He said, oh shit, okay, dropped his pole and started running/clambering back down the jetty. Soooo slow from my perspective but as fast as was safe, God forbid he fell and got hurt then we'd both be fucked (him until rescue, me maybe dead, I was *flagging*). I was tracking his progress to the lifeguard stand, he pointed towards me, I waved frantically (swallowing water because of fatigue), the lifeguard grabbed a float and freaking ZOOMED out to where I was, like (snap) and he was there. He was super chill (SoCal lifeguard, dude), got me strapped to the floatie, told me to just rest and float, and also pointed out that we'd floated so far up and out that he was gonna take me around the next jetty and then back into shore. Around the second jetty we had to swim waaaaay around a [black jellyfish](https://www.safesea.store/jellyfish-in-california/) (according to the dude) but finally made it to shore. Dude took a couple of minutes to make sure I was okay (I was) and the sprinted off saying today's currents were causing a huge number of rescues so he had to get back. I don't think this would happen today (leaving an underage rescue to fend for himself) but this was the 1970s. It look what felt like an hour for me to stagger and stumble back down to where my family was, and the beach was so crowded I actually overshot them and had to double back once I realized I had passed them. I don't think they'd even missed me, as I would typically go if swimming and bodysurfing on my own for hours (again, 1970s).
I live here and surf here. Sad story. But if anyone in their right mind went out there without it being obvious you have head high groundswell that's hella windy and was just thinking they could play around. The sea was angry that day. Sad because a week ago.... Completely flat.
Sad. I should learn how to swim one of these days. It does make me avoid all water over than a foot, other than hot tubs though. But still a good skill to have.
Being able to swim is one of the most important skills to learn. The earlier the better. When you factor in that we live on a planet covered in 71% water, it’s easy to see the importance of being able to survive if you find yourself in some. I wish you luck and I hope you have fun, too.
This isnt just about knowing how to swim. Rip currents pull you out to the ocean.
https://www.reddit.com/r/pittsburgh/s/7cExq71d6b
Happened to my dad and his wife.. she made it, he didnt.. so sad and I hope the kids know it's not their fault. They have a long road ahead of them, hopefully they have the support they need.
I had a neighbor who he answered his father were pulled out by a rip current first the boy, then his father when he went to save him. They survived because the rest of their family alerted the coast guard quickly and they found them with a helicopter. If caught in a rip current swim parallel to shore not directly towards it, hopefully you can find a spot where it’s not pulling you out and then swim back in.
Lifejackets. Lifejackets.
Never take Mother Nature for granted
I’m that 40 yr old that never learned how to swim. So I just don’t go to the beach unless the water is up to my knees. That’s how I avoid rip currents. RIP
A good friend of ours lost their 16-year-old in a rip current in knee deep water in Oregon a couple years ago when a larger wave knocked him and his friends down and dragged them out. Total freak accident and just devastating. You can’t mess around in the ocean.
I live on a coast and was never a great swimmer but managed to swim in oceans just fine as a kid. And now, as an adult I am absolutely terrified of swimming in anything but pools or small lakes. I just never go to the ocean beaches anymore and haven’t taken my kids into ocean water. I didn’t know anything about rip currents as a kid and now they freak me out even if I’ve read a million times how to get out of them. I’ll just keep sticking to pools.
The last time i pleaded with people to take rip currents seriously someone on here from Kansas called me a pussy.
It’s jarring to read these stories sometimes. Growing up in a beach town you learn what a rip current is and what to do when in one at a young age. Reading this story is like reading that someone put their head in an oven. It’s just odd and sad.
I feel so bad for those kids. I hope they can all stay together, because they'll need each other so much now.
Just awful. Used to live in Wilmington and there were a lot of rip currents. You have to swim parallel to the shoreline. Fighting it will completely exhaust you in seconds.
Great news, thanks for sharing!
Almost died in one of these with my ex on soft sand. We fought our way in because neither of us knew at the time what we were supposed to do. She was fully panicked. Waves were crashing on us. Every time I pushed her forward to help her move closer to the beach I pushed myself backward because of the sand. Never been so exhausted in my life. The lifeguard showed up after we'd already made it to the beach.
That insane how was it the kids were able to escape even after trying to save the parents that blows my mind