Posted on 07/21/2018 5:51:55 AM PDT by Freedom'sWorthIt
‘This procedure was once taught to Boy Scouts, long ago, when the Scouts were real out-doorsy type Boy Scouts.’
yes, well the procedure now is to plop 3 teenage boys on a tower watching a postage stamp of water, so that they are not deprived of socializing time, rather than deploying them each to guard a similar sized patch of water, thereby tripling the available swimming area...Jersey brain power (Chris Christie) at it’s finest...
More about the 8 drowning deaths along the Outer Banks since April of this year....
https://wtkr.com/2018/07/20/8-deaths-in-waters-of-outer-banks-since-april/
So tragic!
Not true at all. Can happen under the “right” circumstances in knee or thigh high water. Not flaming...just as a warning to others.
I swim 2 to 3 miles a week year round for exercise in a indoor pool. My best open water swim was 3 miles at the Outer Banks in North Carolina from mile post 21 to Gary Olivers OBX fishing peer at mile post 18. I never go in the open water with out a board or a life guard rescue can. I never swim against the current and I don’t go out in the water if the wind is parallel to the beach.
On a beach that runs north- south, like most of the OBX shoreline, the wind must be from the east or west before I will go out in the water. A north east wind is definitely bad for more than just fishing because it drives the water rapidly south and is not visible unless you know what to look for. People who spend a lot of time at the beach and have experience can read the water and shoreline. A knowledge of the tides is essential. You can pick up a local tide chart at any tackle shop.
The boards I use must have a strong leash that is tethered to my arm by Velcro. I secure the tether well above my left elbow near my shoulder for swimming and boogie boarding or around my ankle for surfing. I pull the board or rescue can behind me as I swim from 50 to 200 yards beyond the shore breakers.
While swimming well beyond the breakers, I pass through the tail end of a rip current every few hundred yards. I try to stay close to 50 yards from shore but the rip currents frequently push you out. Once I’ve passed the end of a rip by allowing it, without fighting it, to push me out as I pass, I swim diagonally, in my direction of travel to return to within 50 yard of shore. I return to the beach by slowly swimming diagonally toward the beach until I reach the shore. I never try to swim the shortest route by swimming directly at the shore you will fight strong currents the whole way.
I have gone to the Outer Banks 2 or 3 times a year for nearly 40 years. I have seen people drown. They were too far out for me or any life guard to reach them in time. You can be swept out beyond the breakers in less than a minute.
I’ve seen people walking along the shore in the water no deeper than their shins and sometimes only their ankles, who get swept off their feet by a strong current into only a few inches of water. They then get get repeatedly knocked off their feet by waves and invisible currents underneath the waves that are driven by winds and changing tides that overwhelm them and pull them along the shore and out into open water beyond the breakers. This can happen in only a few minutes.
Several weeks ago, while I was fishing with friends in the Outer Banks, the Norfolk/Newport News local news channel reported that a toddler walking along the shore with his grandmother was knocked by a wave out of his grandmothers hands into the shore break. She was not able to grab the child; the child was not able to stand up. She watched helplessly while her grandchild rolled under the shore breakers and disappeared into the waves. It happened less than a mile from where we were fishing. It’s heart breaking and it happens all the time.
Sometimes the bodies sink and aren’t recoverable immediately until gasses build up in their bodies that float them to the surface. The Coast Guard flies in helicopters low over the water at night with a search light to find the remains. Vibrations from the rotor blades or from very low flying Coast Guard AC-130’s will often bring them to the surface. I’ve sat on the porch of rental units watching search by multiple helicopter and planes go up and down the beach until the wee hours of the morning.
If you can’t swim at least a half a mile without stopping and tread water for a long time, I would not go out in the water unless their was a life guard. Even if their is a life guard I would not go out alone nor without something that floats that’s attached to me.
Wow. Great info. So tragic about the toddler.
Glad you know what you’re doing. Good advice to all.
I pulled my kid sisters friend out of a riptide at Jax beach when I was in high school. I was a star athlete and really strong swimmer and I will tell I was pretty scared at one point. The good thing was she was not far out when I spotted her. Fortunately growing up in FL they did teach us to swim diagonally to the beach until you work yourself out of it.
Hope that person expressed their deep gratitude to you for your lifesaving action. Glad you were all okay.
I meant to add this link to my previous post.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSiGZ6cvCls
There are many good videos on youtube about rip currents, how to spot them and how to respond if you are caught in one.
videos about “reading” a beach for the ocean floor contours for surf fishing are also very helpful.
A previous post mentioned the Boy Scouts. I was a boy scout and learned about water safety while earning my swimming merit badge. One requirement for earning the badge was a one mile open water swim. I swam my mile in the Lake at Goshen scout camp in Virginia. I’ve been swimming regularly ever since.
My Dad always made us stand on the beach and look for riptides before we got in the water. They are easy to spot and you just need to stay away from them.
Thanks for the info.
It is true that swimming near a pier heightens the risk of being bitten or attacked by a shark. They’re drawn by the same thing that the fishermen on the pier are, and bait in the water only adds to the effect.
However, you are correct that staying inside the breakers does not mean you’re safe. Check this out:
Were there not lifeguards in the area?
This cannot be taught enough.
Very true. You weren’t even in the big stuff though, that’s on down Hatteras, at the lighthouse to an extent but really at Cape Point. There, the horizon looking out to sea is jagged. Waves as far as the eye can see. The sound of them, I love it, and the mist that shoots out of a big barrel when it breaks, very cool like it’s alive or something.
Lifeguard coverage on the OBX is spotty, usually municipally funded. There are lifeguards in the bigger beach towns and at the resorts, but you’re on your own elsewhere.
With that being said, I've always been respectful and leery of the ocean.....
Back when I was about 14 or 15, myself and two friends (Tim and Danny) were inner tubing way out in the lack for a couple of hours.
The next day I was at Tim's house which was also on the lake closer to town when we saw a Coast Guard helicopter flying around on the other side of the lake. Turns out they were looking for Danny who had been tubing alone over there when he slipped off the tube and went under. What Tim and I never knew was that Danny didn't know how to swim..........
The Outer Banks (OBX) is a 200-mile-long (320 km) string of barrier islands and spits off the coast of North Carolina and south eastern Virginia, on the east coast of the United States.
Life Guards are only posted at designated areas. You can go to place along the national seashore and wildlife refuge in the Outer Banks and walk to the beach from the coastal highway, spend the whole day on the beach and not see another person until you walk back to the road.
The Life Guards ride up and down the beach on 4 wheel ATV’s and 4 wheel drive SUV’s with radios along the developed sections of some of the towns along the Outer Banks like Nags Head. You can sit on the beach for a pretty long time before you see a life guard.
Having a cell phone, knowing the name of the closest road and it’s mile marker is a good idea before going in the water.
Less than 40 miles of the 200+ miles is actually developed. When I started going there 35+ years ago less than 20 miles were sparsely populated.
A fascinating book about the history of the Outer banks is
and
Nine of the original 13 beach houses still stand and are still owned by the original families. One was move off the beach due to beach erosion and turned into the First Colony Inn.
https://www.firstcolonyinn.com/
Excellent advice for the inexperienced.
We used to seek out rip tides and use them to carry us past the surf line so we could surf, SCUBA dive, etc.
Thanks for all that info.
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