Posted on 06/24/2024 12:18:08 PM PDT by DallasBiff
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Stinging jellyfish, rays with their whip-like tails and sharks on the hunt are some ocean hazards that might typically worry beachgoers. But rip currents are the greatest danger and account for the most beach rescues every year.
Six people drowned in rip currents over a recent two-day period in Florida, including a couple vacationing on Hutchinson Island from Pennsylvania with their six children and three young men on a Panhandle holiday from Alabama, officials say.
About 100 people drown from rip currents along U.S. beaches each year, according to the United States Lifesaving Association. And more than 80 percent of beach rescues annually involve rip currents.
(Excerpt) Read more at kbindependent.org ...
I can take or leave the beach itself, but I really love drinking some quality beers at a beachfront/boardwalk bar.
The scenery can be amazing.
I always heard that you should let it take you until it starts going out to sea a ways, and then swim diagonally to the shore...but don’t you risk getting caught in it again?
Typically a rip current is very localized and does not last very long, but it lasts long enough to cause many people to panic and that is where trouble and death ensue.
Think about it dude....think about it REAL hard. 😏
one problem I’ve always observed about people that vacation in Florida and go to the beaches from states with no coastline and are really unfamiliar with the power of the ocean and what it can do.....that has been a deadly combination more times than I care to remember.
““Swim parallel to the shore” if caught in a rip tide.”
Growing up on the beaches of Florida, I learned to use the rip tide to get past the first set of breaking waves for surfing. The current is your friend.
You left out surf fishing.
My understanding is that these currents only happen during ebb tide, that is to say going from high to low tide, when water is trying to get off the beach. But I'm willing to be corrected by something authoritative.
Yes, if you go into the ocean without any “training” it is very easy to end up dead.
When I was about 13 I was caught in a rip current once in the ocean and felt as though I’d been sucked into a giant vacuum cleaner. I completed a couple years of swim school when I was younger and remembered to furiously swim perpendicular to the direction of the current. It worked but I almost exhausted my supply of air.
Some rips pull hard and down where treading water is not an option.
Agree. Florida is horrible.
Baby oil. That’s the secret. Lol
Good idea to stay away from Florida. Gators, snakes and yankees. Please don’t come here> Thank you very much.
You should stay in Philadelphia, New York or wherever you live. It is awful here. If I were you I would not go to Fla. Plus, many Trump sign to trip on. Very Ba!
Usually they grow less threatening after a margarita or two.
Dreadful.
The first unplanned dead person I ever saw died by an undertow at Dauphin Island, Alabama. Dauphin Island was our hangout/school skip day location. The water can be very bad there, but somehow neither I or any of my friends ever drowned. Quick story; I used to ride with my buddy who was a Marine Police Officer. One time we spent an entire shift dragging for two teenagers at Dauphin Island. They had waded out to neck deep water to talk to a friend in a boat. The friend said they just disappeared while he was talking to them. Fortunately we didn’t find them and they floated up a couple days later.
Brain eating amoebas. I-4.
There’s been five drownings in Galveston Texas this year as well.
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