A PSA from Flatty
 

Please watch out for rip tide!

https://people.com/nyc-firefighter-drowns-beach-saves-drowning-daughter-7510825

https://www.wikihow.com/Survive-a-Rip-Tide

Riptide, water, mother nature all are no joke and take no prisoners.
Sad.

Thank you FB .... the NC beaches can have some notorious rip tides/currents depend upon conditions. If the rip tides are taking you away from shore, do NOT panic and fight them.... that's how folks drown ... and it's tragic. Let the water take you out a ways .... it's never very far, and go in either direction.... sometimes not very far, before swimming back to shore... float with the tide/current... even the best of swimmers are no match for Mother Nature.... PANIC is what kills.

Right and "strong" is no match. But clearly the guys nature was to save/protect and with it being his daughter on top of that, he couldn't fight the drive. The worst part is now the girl is probably going to have some guilt about it the rest of her life.

Don't swim in, swim parallel to the shore as KC911 says.

We have some strong riptides here in SoCal. Standing elevated off the beach you can see them, sometimes as a brownish column heading out from shore.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1686926668.jpg

https://external-content.duckduckgo....ede&ipo=images

The "calm" area in the surf between the arrows is indicative of a rip current. If you see this, stay out of the water. I pay attention more now as I have personally pulled a 5 year old child out of the rip while their parents chatted with friends on the beach - too distracted to watch their kids in the breakers. They were oblivious to the danger until I handed them their wide-eyed and coughing child.

I grew up on the Gulf coast of FL. Thankfully, I never had to deal with them there. As a kid, I would spend hours in the water and never felt the lightest tug due to current. I've since been a few places where I felt the tug of mother nature (but not been in a rip current). She will not be denied. It would be pretty terrifying.

out here in No. CA with all the snow we had there are people drowning in the swollen rivers every weekend it seems. 3 in one incident a week or so back going after a football. the football was found later OK.

Happens here in Oregon often...early hot days of summer, people not really aware of how cold the snow melt river water is. Hypothermia sets in, they tire, and...

Good warning on rip currents.

a childhood hero of mine died from a riptide. Aubrey was his name.
he was a star athlete. including water sports.
graduated university - engineering. buddy and him buy HD motos - go for a celebratory cross continent ride.
he goes swimming in Fla. end of story.

Same here, grew up on the Gulf coast Florida panhandle. We were always taught to swim parallel to the shore and don't fight it, and float if you have to.

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Yeah, I heard the same. I spent time near P'cola and the Tampa/St Pete area. I never felt a strong current.

The only place that I've ever felt a strong current was near the mouth of Tampa bay, on the coast of Japan, and on the Pacific coast of Mexico.

I've seen some rips that look like a fast flowing river.

Sadly, my sister's boyfriend drowned in one and she nearly drowned trying to save him. They were about 200 meters out. Not at all like the 50 meter ones they show in the diagrams.