A Nondescript Vacation Is an Awesome Vacation (Which Does Not Mean I Won't Write at Length about It)
I've been in Ocean City all this week (hence I'm quieter than usual, i.e., pretty much silent except for handling site-related stuff), home last night. It was a beautiful week for the beach and, all in all, pretty nondescript, which is sometimes exactly what a vacation needs to be
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Sure enough, though, Beach Patrol had several rescues on the 4th, post-Arthur, including a rescue in which the Coast Guard had to be called in because the beach patrolers who responded to a surfer in distress also became trapped in the Inlet due to the size of the waves. (There was also a death being reported as of last night, due to rip currents, and the headline is still showing on Google, but the article is no longer posted. Not sure what's up with that, but we've had two rip current-related deaths already this season in OC, both during Senior Week.)
It's crazy to me that, with all the public education on rip currents in OC and how to get out of one, that people still die in them, or that people who can't swim still go out into the ocean. I guess it's the "it won't happen to me" mentality.
We snapped a plastic piece on our kite that unfortunately had to be replaced ... but thankfully, the Kite Loft has all of that stuff in stock, so a five-minute dash into the store and we were flying again. :)
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I don't know why, either. It probably is the "won't happen to me" thing… but really. It's not that hard to stay out of the water. The ocean is not friendly. (Beats me why with the danger, the beaches just didn't stay closed. I'm having trouble wrapping my mind around it.)
When I was in Pensacola at the end of May, my parents and I went for a walk on the beach despite the on-and-off rain, though it was generally off at that point. It was my birthday, our last night there, and just a few minutes walk wouldn't hurt anything. The red flags were flying due to rip currents and the beach was thankfully deserted. I walked where the waves came up on the beach, and at one point, one receding wave nearly dragged me into the water proper, which was an "oh shit rip current! I didn't know you could feel them on the beach itself" moment. I found out the next morning that someone had gone swimming just over the border in Alabama and predictably drowned.
I'm glad you were able to get it flying again swiftly. :D
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No it's not. I'm a strong swimmer, I love the sea more than any other natural setting on earth, and I'm respectful as hell of it. It baffles me when people treat it like a kiddie pool. It's a vast, impersonal, and dangerous-on-many-levels natural force.
I was rather surprised that OC apparently sent out the Beach Patrol later in the day on the 4th, once Arthur blew over. I would have thought they would have kept them in to discourage swimming, but I figured that they assumed people would get in, Beach Patrol or no, and wanted to at least make sure that there was someone on hand who could rescue a person caught in a rip current, for example. OC has a swim-at-your-own-risk policy when Beach Patrol is off-duty; I don't know if they ever close the beaches there. I would assume there's something like that in place, but I don't know what it is.
which was an "oh shit rip current! I didn't know you could feel them on the beach itself" moment.
Now imagine if you'd slipped and fallen and couldn't swim ...
I know it would be bad PR, but I really wish these beaches would put more emphasis on the fact that people who can't swim (or aren't wearing proper flotation equipment) really have no business in the ocean.
Bobby has been caught in a rip current before. (Surfers actually like them because surfers are weird!) He had no problem getting out by using the swim-parallel-to-shore method that is posted at every beach entrance in OC, on every lifeguard chair, and preached by every lifeguard when they periodically pull in all the swimmers to educate them on rip currents. But Bobby is a strong swimmer and knew how to handle the situation, one or both of which seem to be generally lacking in these incidents.
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Yup. And I can't understand how people don't understand that. (Me, I'm a hills and mountains gal.)
I would have thought they would have kept them in to discourage swimming, but I figured that they assumed people would get in, Beach Patrol or no, and wanted to at least make sure that there was someone on hand
That makes a lot of sense to me. The beach we went to has always been swim-at-your-own risk; the lifeguards are at Pensacola Beach aka the tourist beach. Perdido Key's more where (some of) the locals went.
Now imagine if you'd slipped and fallen and couldn't swim ...
I didn't have to; I was imagining it as I staggered toward the water. While I can swim, I'm not a strong one (certainly not as good a one as when I lived in FL), and while I like to think I'd be able to escape…
I know it would be bad PR, but I really wish these beaches would put more emphasis on the fact that people who can't swim (or aren't wearing proper flotation equipment) really have no business in the ocean.
Me, too. It might prevent problems (though given human stupidity, I rather doubt it). It might look beautiful on the surface, but that's far from the entirity of it.
Eek! I'm extremely, extremely glad that he knew what to do.
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