https://www.townofwrightsvillebeach.com/157/Rip-Current-Safety
red rough conditions may be life threatening to all who enter
double red water is closed to public use.
california
http://www.seecalifornia.com/beaches/beach-colors-flags.html
Thanks for that info and link.
I’ve been to Wrightsville Beach and Emerald Isle Beach many times in past years including this year and have never seen the red flags up. But I don’t go in the height of tourist travel time (in the summer) = I go in the spring and the fall.
But if I saw red flags, I would not go in the water even knee deep. But that’s just me.
good info, also ( in case anybody doesnt know) before you go in the ocean, watch what it is doing study the wave patterns.
Know how to swim a riptide, relax and ride the current until it lets you go or sweeps back to shore then swim slightly parralell to shore with the current
If the tide is rising it is generally safer than when it is going out where the bottom will drop out in front of a wave
most waves (unless its chaotic storm waves) come in sets, if you wait between sets you can swim out past where they crest out of danger. Sometimes the last waves in a set will be larger , other times the first
remember most of the power in a wave is above the surface, only a small amount is under water so you can survive a big wave by diving and swimming under it, like my dear old dad said “have respect for the ocean not fear” I have litterally hundreds of hours swimming/surfing the California coast much of it red flag as there is almost always a rip tide