re: LSU student dies after trying to save boy from rip current in Florida

quote:

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bullshite. Rescuers are routinely successful, but they don’t publish those stories as widely. Rip currents are very easy to deal with if you are a good swimmer. Simply tread water with a little bias parallel to the coast. Eventually you will be out of the rip and can begin making your way back to shore. The key is to not wear yourself out battling the current.

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Present day research has shown that if you simply tread water the current will make a 180 degree turn bringing you back to the shore in some minutes. Without this knowledge people panic thinking the tide is going to carry them out to sea.

LINK

“Most rip currents are part of a closed circuit, says Robert Anthony Dalrymple, a coastal engineer and rip current scientist at Johns Hopkins University. If you ride a rip current long enough – float along with it – you will usually be taken back to shore by a diffuse, weaker return flow.”

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