Rip Currents Burn Calories, Too

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Please accept my apologies for skipping Friday’s update (week 173).  The internet was down in the condo I was staying at over the weekend.

My wife and I rented an oceanfront condo in Myrtle Beach for Memorial Day weekend.  We left early Friday and returned earlier today (Monday).  The first half of the weekend was relaxing and uneventful, but I was given the opportunity on Sunday to fight a rip current (also commonly called a rip tide).

For the unaware (all you folks from Montana), a rip current is essentially a strong underwater stream that sucks you out to sea.  A rip current isn’t easily noticed from the shore and can be anywhere from a few feet to 100+ feet in width.  You only know you’re stuck in a rip current when you suddenly find yourself considerably further from the shore than you were a few seconds ago.

Personally, I suddenly went from wading in waste deep water to being well over my head.  It was a pretty horrifying experience.  The lifeguards were already off duty for the day, so it was up to me not to end up dead.  Even though I had never been in a rip current before, I thankfully already knew what to do:

- Swim parallel with the shore to leave the current and not fight it.
- Paced swimming.  Panicking makes you tired, which makes you dead.

Swimming directly back to shore is the biggest mistake most people make.  It’s just a natural reaction to want to go directly back to the shore and fight the current, but it’s a futile one and ends up killing folks.

And that’s my PSA on rip currents.