#rip tides

'The Nine Tides' of The Mull of Galloway, South Rhins, Scotland.

A Few Things For Us To Think About ( #1619 ) ( Some Proverbs For Our Thoughts ) 1.) 80 Years ago today was D-Day, so please, give some honor to the dead! 2.) Weeds and carrots grow in the  same dirt! 3.) By the time that we understand life, it is time to die! 4.) For our children, try to do nothing that would harm life! 5.) If we can bend a little from our burdens we will not break from them! 6.)…

The lake can be a killer.

This morning, contemplating our day up here on Lake Superior, we consulted the Weather Channel. There we found a rip tide warning specific to our stretch of beach. A rip tide, also known as an undertow, can pull a person off their feet into deeper water, and unless that person knows how to swim out of a rip tide, drowning is the likely result.

We were careful then…

Reuters, March 8, 2017

SYDNEY--Notices in several languages emblazoned with the symbol of the skull and crossbones caution against the risk of being swept off the rocks at Maroubra Beach in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.

But the warnings were not enough to prevent Nepali university students Shristi Bhandari, 23, and Sudeep Uprety, 26, from walking beside an ocean pool toward a rocky ledge on the eve of Valentine’s Day, a trip from which they did not return.

“They didn’t think it would take their lives,” said Sanskriti KC, a close friend who identified the bodies after they washed up later.

The couple were among 92 people who drowned at beaches and waterspots during another tough Australian summer from December to February, says water safety educator the Royal Life Saving Society.

Summer deaths, whose average has hovered around that figure in the past five years, remain stubbornly high, provoking questions why a government-funded campaign to halve drownings by 2020 has failed to reduce the figures.

With almost one in three Australians born overseas, water safety advocates want regulations changed to benefit those hailing from countries that lack a strong swimming culture.

Disproportionate numbers of the overseas born, whether migrants, international students or tourists, particularly those of South Asian origin, figure among drowning victims, said Surf Life Saving Central Coast President Stuart Harvey.

The circumstances of those swept off rocks, including Bhandari and Uprety, are often the same: an area appears safe until a bigger-than-normal wave engulfs an unsuspecting visitor.

Now in the ocean, the panicked person tries to swim back to the cliff face, only to be dashed against the rocks. Lacking floating or swimming skills, and without a life jacket, it is tough to find a safer route back.

Research shows the leading cause of beach drownings is rip currents, or fast-moving channels of water that can pull someone away from shore.

“People are dying in rips because they are panicking,” said veteran Bondi Beach lifeguard Bruce Hopkins, estimating that 90 percent of rescues involved tourists and inexperienced swimmers trapped near shore.

“You start thrashing around, you start losing a lot of energy. It makes it very, very difficult to stay afloat.”