Well..........I have a Christmas story for ya. Me and the family are in West Palm Beach Florida for vacation. Today we decided to go to the beach with my cousins. When we got there we noticed warning flags all over, but of course being a macho guy we decided to ignore and swim anyhow. Well, I found out what a "rip current" is first hand. Me, my 14 year son and cousin got caught and were pulled out deeper and deeper. 4 and 5 foot waves hitting us. We were screaming for help and the life guards finally noticed and got out to helps us. It took them over 5 minutes to get past the rip current just to get to us. I was literally going under for good when the life guard board hit me in the face and I grabbed it with the one once of strength I had left. I had spent all my enery trying to push my 15 year old back to shore, but we kept going out no matter how hard we were swimming. It a helpless feeling looking at your son and knowing you are going under and can't help him either.

Two life guards and another civilian were out to help, but they got caught with us and it starting pulling us out in bigger waves even with the floatation device and guards we were still doomed. The civilian soon got caught in the current and just added to the people to save. Finally there were about five more Life guards and they pulled us in one at a time. After about 5 hours in the local hospital, me and the family are fine.

Moral of the story for all. DO NOT MESS with currents, pick a different time to swim. I was seriously dead, if 5 seconds would have went by.......We were gone. Whats worse, I swam for years on the swim team, my cousin with us was certified life guard and my 15 year is great swimmer in awesome shap......that's how bad this was. Anyhow, very lucky to be alive.

 

Wow, just found this and thought it was appropriate.

"Since 1989, an average of 19 persons have died each year as a result of rip currents in Florida, according to the National Weather Service East Central Florida Rip Current Program. Rip currents, on average, result in more deaths in Florida than hurricanes, tropical storms, tornadoes, severe thunderstorms and lightning combined."

I was almost a statistic today.

 

Either let it take you out and swim around it to shore or swim sideways

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What beach were you at. You know my wife is from there. Her parents live right by Lake Worth Beach.

Glad to hear you made it OK.

 

never **** with mother nature

glad your alright

 

+1, i went bodyboarding a couple days before the hurricanes, big mistake i almost drowned and wasted so much energy trying to swin strait to shore then rememberd that your supposed to swin along the beach until your out. took forever to get back to shore. your lucky the lifegaurds were on duty there were none when i was out.

 

I use to use them when surfing to get out the back instead of paddling out lol


An easy way to tell them is the water is usually darker and the waves aren't as big.

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yep you can't out swim it trying to go straight back to shore , the secret is first and formost don't panic and spend all your energy at once ...

you have to relax and swim parallel to the shore till you are out of the current then you can swim in ..

turning over on your back and keeping your lungs full of air as much as you can will increase your buoyancy and make it alot easier to swim longer..

 

glad to hear you and your boy are okay.

+1, but i dont think people out in florida are used to actual "surf" and rip currents. when i went there the beach was like gravel and the ocean looked like a busy lake.

out here in cali big waves (8ft+) and actual surf (waves coming is sets of three) are common. getting caught in 5ft waves and a rip current would make you panic out if you arent used to it.

 

very, very, very true statement.

Its definitely great to hear you & the fam are okay. An experience like that definitely makes you grateful for the little things in life.

 

wow, that's crazy stuff. I'm surprised there were lifeguards. Not very many beaches have lifeguards and when the weather is bad they usually don't have them working (i guess because they hope people will heed the warning signs).

So is your son 14 or 15 years old? I could see maybe yourself or your cousin since you are both adults but taking your young son out? come on....you need to think a little bit more about that one.

 

Don't really need preaching on bad parenting at this time, but thanks anyhow. I about died trying to make sure he made it and get him help by using any enery I had trying scream and wave for help. Actually he had went out with my cousin first and I swam out to make sure I was with him. Again, if you not familar with "rip currents" (which I obvious wasn't) you don't need to go out far. We were WAIST high!!! having fun riding little waves to shore and in about TWO seconds we were a hundred yards out and then another hundred before I could even think twice. That's the only reason I even posted this, no one could have ever convinced me that would happen. Again, my boy is a avid swimmer (even better than I) and we've had a pool our whole lives, plus my cousin with us was a certified life guard. The life guard that saved us had been working there for 22 years and said he had never seen a Rip Current like that.

After reading about "rip currents" on the web I agree with what most are saying. You need to swim parallel with the beach and save energy. From what i read, you could be anywhere else for a hunder mile stretch and not hit a rip current, just happend to be in that one spot. I'll be honest, I paniced. As fast as that pulled us out and the waves got even bigger all I could think of was getting to shore. The worse part, we were already tired from playing in the water.

All I know is I owe some life guards a big favor I guess, I was going down for the count when their board hit me. I had taken one last look over at my boy and seen he was still paddling and I was going under for good. Not a fun day.

 

Yea Water Is Crazy U Cant Even Breath When Ur Under It..... I Glad U All Are Good I Almost Drowned Once And I Swear I Held My Breath For Like 3 Min Dont No How But I Did Crazy **** Man...

 

your just a lil guy !

 

ive always liked the pavement myself 4 wheelers. bikes . sleds etc.

swimming pools are my thing hahahahaha. glad you're ok man, im sure it was scary

 

dont feel bad, live and learn. like i said its easy to underestimate something you have never dealt with before and its even easier to panic. next time, just make sure there isnt a next time.

 

So ture, won't catch me in the ocean for a while. kinda like your first "tank slapper". Once that happened to me, I've never rode a bike without a steering damper. Anyhow, all is good now thank goodness

 

Glad you're ok... I've had my share having grown up in FL and now back living here... prob 1 out of every 5 times out surfing one of us will find a rip... not trying to bag on you, but this is a perfect example of why those rip current signs are up all over the place here... I just wish more tourists would pay attention to them... Again, glad you're ok though...

 

Yep, should have paid better attention. I thought the flags were for rough water........which, I was like so what ya know. To be honest I had no idea what a rip current is. I've heard the term on Baywatch and stuff as a kid, but never thought much about it. With all three of us being very strong swimmers, I honestly wasn't worried. I found out it doesn't matter if you Michael Phelps, your losing the batter again a strong rip.

 

wow! Glad this story had a happy ending... IT sounded like it was pretty close to being bad!

glad your'e all OK. And that wouldv'e scared the **** out of me for the first time and having my child with me, but honestly you can't let this scare you off from the ocean man... Just be a little more careful, you'll be allright!