“Swimming and water activities
are very healthy so long as you use appropriate caution for yourself and your
family when you visit the beach,” says B. Chris Brewster, president of the
United States Lifesaving Association (USLA), a national organization based in
Huntington Beach, Calif. The first step is knowing where danger lurks and how
to avoid it.
Rip currents, often misnamed rip tides or undertows, occur
when surf pushes water up the slope of the beach and then gravity pulls it back.
This creates concentrated rivers of water moving offshore. They tend to form as
waves disperse along the beach, causing water to become trapped between the beach
and a sandbar or another underwater feature. The water converges into a narrow,
river-like channel moving away from the shore at high speed.
They are
anything but benign. In fact, about 80 percent of lifeguard rescues at ocean beaches
are due to rip currents and 80 percent of drowning deaths are also due to rip
currents, Brewster says. “Rip currents can occur at any surf beach and they
tend to be more intense as surf size increases,” Brewster says.
The best way to protect yourself from rip currents is to avoid them. ”Select
a beach where lifeguards are present because the chances of drowning are 1 in
18 million if a lifeguard is present,” he says.
Sounds simple enough,
but there are many beaches around the U.S. where no lifeguards are provided by
the local community, he says.
“Make sure beaches are staffed at
the time you are swimming,” he adds. “At some beaches, lifeguards
are only staffed until 6 p.m., for example, so the mere fact that you go to a
beach where a lifeguard is present doesn’t mean a lifeguard will be present
when you are swimming,” he says.
Brewster advises checking with
the lifeguards and asking them to point out the safest places to swim. “It
is their role to help you find the safest place [and] if there are no lifeguards
present, you may find a kiosk or signs at beach access points listing such information.”
If you do happen to get caught in a rip current, Brewster advises swimming
to the side one way or the other until you no longer have difficulties or feel
yourself being pulled.
Whatever you do, don't fight the current.
"These currents can move up to 8 knots, which is faster than an Olympic swimmer
can swim,” he says. “In many cases, you will be simply unable to outpower
the rip current, so you’ll want to outsmart it,” he says.
Another option is to tread water until someone can assist you, Brewster suggests.
“Learn to swim in the environment where you are going to be swimming,”
Brewster says. “You may be a confident pool swimmer, but that doesn’t
prepare you for conditions on the North shore of Oahu in Hawaii,” he says.
“Always swim near a lifeguard and never swim alone,” he says.
“Even a very confident swimmer can experience difficulties and if there
is an emergency and you are alone, you may not be noticed.” | |
