re: Three young fathers drown in rip tide at Panama City Beach

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i thought Ryan Mallet died from the rip tides last year. May be what you are remembering

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It was Mallet, and it was determined that rip currents played no role in his drowning.

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Many years back at Destin area with extended family and had read Rips had been bad, so I was giving a quick class to everyone…grabbed a float, just to help visualize, and waited for one and let it take me out and around. I think it made a good impact

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Honestly not a bad idea if you are an experienced swimmer. No one believes it will happen to them unless they either see it happen to someone else or experience themselves. Much of the time it takes the latter even having witnessed the former for many.

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Have friends and family of the three young men said that they were good swimmers? Or that they had any experience swimming anywhere? It was hot and they ran into the water. What a tragedy, It took three hours for professional swimmers to recover their bodies. Additional tragedies didn't happen.

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You’d be surprised how many parents, friends, & family that tell me their kids can swim. I learned to just assume they don’t know now bc a few kids had me fooled until I started really watching their technique. These kids use so much energy to just move short distances.

Almost every kid I teach has never even learned how to properly hold your hands for a basic front or back stroke.

I told my BFF last wknd that her grandson had fooled us bc he looks like he can swim in the pool but he will drown from exhaustion if he ever falls in a pool. She was mortified when I started working with him and seeing he had never grasped the basics.

Peyton Hillis beach

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What an awful story. Their lives gone after stupidly jumping in the water at sunset as soon as they arrived at the beach.

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Statistically safer than driving from Birmingham to PCB on a Friday in June. What is stupid about doing something millions of people do every day? It is summer....folks go to the beach. They get in the water. Doing so is risky.

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sharks feed at night and there have been a lot of activity in the gulf

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Sharks are present in the surf day and night. It is where the food is and the water clarity is ideal for predators. Sharks feed all day. There is no more activity this year than ever....they are always present, 24/7/365. What has changed is social media. Sharks do not participate in that arena. Sharks do what they have always done and folks have the opportunity today to react hysterically to nature doing what nature has always done.

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If you are a strong swimmer you can tread or float for hours. But they get scared and fight it, rather than letting it take them out and then swimming back in or waiting for rescue.

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I have had it happen while surf fishing. Even knowing what to do the first inclination is to fight it. No one can...it is going to do what it is going to do. The good thing is, in my experience, as soon as the current gets past the next bar it more or less disappears. Even knowing this though it is disconcerting to find yourself being pushed out past that bar. It is very disorienting...it is easy to see how people get in trouble.

On the upside its a good place to fish....anywhere along the beach where there is an obvious change in wave patterns and currents is a door between deeper water and food for predators.

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We just swam parallel to the shore and ended up way out by the time we stopped getting pulled out.

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how far out did you get dragged? what is sort of normal for your average rip current? i go to the beach with my family a pretty fair amount and the rip current threat is always in the back of my mind especially with little kids. as much time as i've spent at the beach in my life, i'm actually surprised i've never had an encounter like the one you described. i feel confident that i could handle myself and swim my way out of it, but also in the back of my mind, i wonder how many men that drown in rip currents felt the same way about themselves prior.

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Easier said than done. Panic sets in when the rip current is pulling you out.

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Its also very disorienting....it takes a second to realize that something has changed and it ain't good.

idk about Friday, but Saturday the currents were ridiculous at Fort Pickens/PEN beach. We had to put fourth some serious effort to even take a step against the current. I was sore yesterday from trying to fight it.