Originally published at: Watch: Florida beach crowd saves a swimmer by forming a human chain | Boing Boing
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Brave souls, good on them for the rescue. Never turn your back on the Sea!
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So in some cases Florida People can rise about the Florida Man moniker. Lucky save!
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Panama City is on the Gulf Coast which has very shallow water with little surf (but often real bad riptides). Its the conditions that a chain can work.
Last year (just a few miles down the beach from there) a man died in the surf ~200 ft from me. Very glad this time turned out better
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Mostly this was just Florida people flaunting the 6 ft apart rule. Saving the woman was just a fortunate side quest.
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In civilized states, we have these things called “Life Guards”. Of course, that is because we are nanny states.
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The United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration comments:
Rip currents are not rip tides. A specific type of current associated with tides may include both the ebb and flood tidal currents that are caused by egress and ingress of the tide through inlets and the mouths of estuaries, embayments, and harbors. These currents may cause drowning deaths, but these tidal currents or tidal jets are separate and distinct phenomena from rip currents. Recommended terms for these phenomena include ebb jet, flood jet, or tidal jet.[4]
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Florida Man is neither good nor evil, but pure chaos. I’d argue that using a questionable life saving technique to successfully save a life is on-brand.
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Only virtue-signaling liberals flaunt the six foot rule. These people are flouting it.
Well at least they didnt use a human centipede…
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Do people not know how to get out of a riptide? I.e. is this not common knowledge if you didn’t grow up next to the ocean?
Having grown up in a beach city, we all had that drilled into us since we were little. Now I live a couple of cities inland from the beach, but we still go, and GirlChild has had it drilled into her noggin (and she’s never been caught in one, but delights in showing us where they are).
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What’s the secret?
Swim sideways. They’re basically formed by a channel in the sand underwater, meaning that water leaves there in more volume and more quickly, but the current itself is fairly narrow. I don’t know about other places, but “if you’re caught in a rip current, swim parallel to the beach until you get out” is posted on signs by beaches here.
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To follow up on @knoxblox and @tekk, this article from NOAA is very informative:
Basically, a rip current is very narrow and will not pull you under, so just relax and let it take you out a bit until the force stops, or swim sideways from it (parallel to the shore).
As in most things in life, the number one rule is: Don’t Panic.
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Yep.
If you do get caught in a rip current, the best thing you can do is stay calm. It’s not going to pull you underwater, it’s just going to pull you away from shore.
Call and wave for help. You want to float, and you don’t want to swim back to shore against the rip current because it will just tire you out. You want to swim out of the rip, parallel to shore, along the beach and then follow breaking waves back to shore at an angle.
If caught in a rip current, don’t fight it! Swim parallel to the shore and swim back to land at an angle.
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You raise a very interesting point with regard to the functioning of the human centipede in both coastal lifesaving as well as every day ventures…
Obviously the HC has value in society as I would expect their carbon footprint would be quite low re food consumption and waste, yet there is little to suggest that the individual links in the chain would have anything approaching the breathing capacity that is needed by your average healthy lifeguard!?
I’m thinking that the nose to butt crack situation would be a major impediment to oxygen intake, but then again all those extra arms and legs could be useful in cutting through the waves.
Sorry, so obvious to me that it didn’t occur to have to say it.
Your response answers my question though.
As others have noted, you just swim sideways/parallel to the beach. A rip will drag you away from shore, but you can just swim out of it. People die by exhausting themselves trying to fight it (hint: probably near impossible). You can just swim out of them, then swim back to shore, or take a wave back in.
We used to use small rips to ride out, then get out, ride nice wave back in. Lather, rinse, repeat.
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Ven you got it…
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