Knowing how to swim could save your life, as could knowing when not to.
From:cool: the National Park Service's Morning Report:
On August 14th, off-duty surfguard Kelly Werner and off-duty visitor use assistant James Keena were involved in an after hours rescue of a family at Jacob Riis Park. Both off duty employees were fully dressed. Werner and another park visitor saved the lives of a mother and child while Keena assisted with the rescue. Werner returned to the surf after the second rescue to rescue the father. Keena then proceeded to give CPR to the victim until medical help arrived.
Riis Park, an ocean beach near Breezy Point, is in the Jamaica Bay Unit of Gateway National Recreation Area. It is estimated that 9 out of 10 visitors to the beaches in the New York area cannot swim."
Another recent NPS Morning Report noted that 3 swimmers were caught in a rip tide off Cape Hatteras, NC. Other swimmers managed to bring them to shore, but one died.
People are amazing in their lack of awareness.Every year in Oregon we have several river drownings of people who don't know how to swim and wade into the rivers on hot days.
By the way,if you can swim and hypothermia is not an issue,"undertow" is not a big issue as long as you know what to do and don't panic.Yes it will knock you off your feet and sweep you out faster than you can swim in,but they are not very wide so swim parallel to shore til it stops and then swim in.
People are amazing in their lack of awareness.Every year in Oregon we have several river drownings of people who don't know how to swim and wade into the rivers on hot days.
By the way,if you can swim and hypothermia is not an issue,"undertow" is not a big issue as long as you know what to do and don't panic.Yes it will knock you off your feet and sweep you out faster than you can swim in,but they are not very wide so swim parallel to shore til it stops and then swim in.
