Posted on 06/10/2005 10:31:39 PM PDT by varyouga
College student dies after being caught in rip tides off Miami Beach
By SARA BLUMENTHAL
sblumenthal@herald.com
A college exchange student drowned early Friday when she got caught in a rip tide off the coast of Miami Beach.
Four college students from Russia were walking along Miami Beach when they decided to go into the water off 16th Street in Miami Beach. Three of the young women immediately came out because of the roughness of the surf. However, the fourth woman had ventured further into the water and was caught in the rip tide. One of her companions tried to rescue her only to be caught by the tide as well.
The women on the shore flagged down help. Miami-Dade County sea turtle observers and a Miami Beach police officer went in after the two women.
The officer was able to pull out the second women, but was unable to rescue the first.
Miami Beach Fire-Rescue arrived on the scene and pulled the woman out of the water. She was not breathing and had no heartbeat, officials said.
She was rushed to South Miami Beach Community Hospital where she was pronounced dead.
The women, and the college they attend, have not been identified.
This is terrible>I'm very sad.Things here may look same but currents are different. They should never have done it but death is too high price for being young and adventerous.The connection to recent event of American in Aruba is so strange yet sorrow follows the same.
Rip tides are sneaky.
Very sad situation.
I hope the officer is recognized for his/her actions. Heroic.
I think that when you are caught in a rip tide the worst thing to do is fight it. If you are a good swimmer, let it carry you out, swim down the beach a bit and then try to swim in.
1). Swim towards shore so you don't go farther out to sea.
2). Swim towards the nearest lifeguard station.
3). Lay on your back and float.
4). Swim with the flow (out to sea) but at an angle to the general flow of the rip tide.
You are exactly right. Rip tides are just currents of water returning from the shore.
Water is thrown onto the shore by waves. Channels are created in the sand by the water returning to the sea. Rip tide currents run out to sea. Instead of fighting them, all you have to do is swim parallel to the shore and you will swim out of them.
When I would body surf or go beach diving, I would look for rip tides. They are visible by their murky appearance, and by the way the waves are broken up by them. I would ride them out to where I wanted to go.
If someone unfamiliar with the sea gets caught in one and tries to swim against it, he can tire and drown.
5.) Parallel to the shore.
I was in the ocean one time and saw a woman and her daughter getting sucked out. They were frantically swimming towards shore but still going out to see. I was not in the rip tide but swam into it to help them. At first I could not convince them to follow me but then then did.
It was very easy to get out of it. Just like swimming downstream. But, once we were out of it we were pretty far out in the ocean. That is what scares people.
The lifeguard boat came and picked them up. I swam back in.
Exactly as you say, swim with it. Never fight it. Once you are free of it, swim down the beach a bit and then towards shore.
That will not get you out of it as fast as swimming with the current at the same time you are swimming at an angle to it.
Swimming across the current always got me right out of it. Swimming with the current always got me farther out, unless, of course, I stayed in to the point where the rip hooked. That's how I used them to get past the surf line.
The page has an animation of the rip tide process.
I used to teach SCUBA diving in Southern California. Swimming parralel to shore is the correct method of escaping a rip current.
Thank you. BTW, the sandbars are where the waves are created.
I used to be a lifeguard (Redondo Beach, Avenue C). If it is a strong rip tide, swimming parallel to it will actually take you farther out than if you swim with it and out of it. And for a less-than-strong swimmer, fighting sideways against the current will wear them down much more quickly.
Here is what another source says.
Remain calm to conserve energy and think clearly.
Never fight against the current.Remain calm to conserve energy and think clearly.
Never fight against the current.
Think of it like a treadmill that cannot be turned off, which you need to step to the side of.
Swim out of the current in a direction following the shoreline. When out of the current, swim at an angle--away from the current--towards shore.
If you are unable to swim out of the rip current, float or calmly tread water. When out of the current, swim towards shore.
If you are still unable to reach shore, draw attention to yourself by waving your arm and yelling for help.
This would seem to follow more of what you are saying. But it is not how we were taught. I could not imagine trying to get out of a rip tide in that manner - not easily. You are still fighting the current swimming sideways.
Miami-Dade County "sea turtle observers"???
I know it's off topic, but does anybody know how much this job pays?
"If you are a good swimmer, let it carry you out, swim down the beach a bit and then try to swim in."
Appreciate the information. I'm a landlubber from a landlocked state, but I love to go to the beach when I'm
near one. Wouldn't have had a lick of sense about how to
get out of this kind of trouble. Probably would have panicked and met the same fate as the poor Russian girl. And I'm a pretty good swimmer.
My students were all competent swimmers, as I would not introduce a poor swimmer to beach diving in California. The surf is too strong.
A competent swimmer can easily swim out of a rip tide by swimming sideways, in the same direction as the main coastal current, of course, then swim in or catch a wave in farther down the shoreline. A poor swimmer would be better off not to swim at all, just float (out to sea, unfortunately) until someone rescues him. It doesn't make sense to swim with the rip tide at a slight angle as opposed to floating, because either method will deliver a swimmer to beyond the surf line, where rip tides hook parallel to the shore and dissipate, and floating reserves the swimmer's energy.
Sounds to me like we agree. Floating is definately the best thing if you are a poor swimmer. Few poor swimmers will do that. And when they get out farther and farther they will start to get very apprensive.
Anyhow, it has been a while - a long while - since I was a lifeguard. Perhaps the thinking has changed. But when I went in after someone caught in a rip tide, it was at an angle and with the current that I took them.
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