rolanni | PSA: The World is not Disneyland, Part Four Thousand Forty-Two

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PSA: The World is not Disneyland, Part Four Thousand Forty-Two

OK, who here does not know better than to go swimming in the ocean when there's been a Big Storm within the last couple days? Show of hands, here, people.

Right. The ocean is not your friend. The weather is not your friend. I speak here as one who is very much attracted to both the ocean and to dangerous weather. I understand the allure. But for cryin' out loud, don't dice with either for your life. Unless you're very, very lucky, you will lose.

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I didn't know, but then, I grew up in Alaska, where one doesn't swim in the ocean anyway, because it will freeze you to death. :)

one doesn't swim in the ocean anyway, because it will freeze you to death

We have a Theme :)

But, as my excuse -- I have never lived on a costal state.
Actually I can probably count the number of times I have been in the ocean on one hand.

Actually, the people in Maine weren't swimming, they were "observing" and a particularly nasty wave swept some of them onto the rocks and some of them into the ocean. Unlike the idiot who went swimming in Florida.

However, both sets of people showed really poor judgement. I have gone to watch the ocean a couple of times when storms were out to sea. It is awesome and beautiful, but CLEARLY deadly. A smart person stays really, really far back from any of the waves.

Susan from Florida

We have two sets of swept-away people in Maine -- one set were taken off of Thunder Hole in Bar Harbor, which is a very dangerous spot in re surf on any day of the year. The ocean is Even More Unpredictable there than usual. There's a story there, somewhere...

The second set were at Old Orchard Beach, ref the link, and they were swimming, apparently in the belief that they would be "safe" at low tide, with a hurricane influencing the water.

Now THAT is just plain stupid! I must have missed the second episode in Maine. I only heard about the blow-hole.

Of course, we have our fair share in FL. The one swimmer that died was part of a group that went to, I think, "body-surf". They are lucky only 1 died.

The ocean is beautiful, but deadly for careless people.

Susan in Fl

From the link, the beach wass closed and they still had to call in the fire and police departments because people weren't listening!

I would be so tempted to shout "think of it as evolution in action!" and let them swim if they were that determined (or stupid)...

Yeah, but just think what the Imagineers at Disney could do to bring the descriptions in the story to life:

"It just kept coming higher and higher, and as the waves crashed on the rocks, the ground actually shuttered," said Carole Thompson, a summer resident.

Edited 2009-08-25 14:27 (UTC)

[A tip of the hat to the old folktale (from the Grimms or whoever) "The Boy Who Learned to Shudder and Shake", from which, together with the fact that we spent our summers in a little white Adirondack house with green shutters, I learned some useful vocabulary]

Obviously, the reporter did not have your advantages *g*

During a storm, of course not. After--unless the sea actively looked stormy still--I'm not sure I would know.

But I've lived my adult life inland, in spite of growing up on the coast.

During a storm, of course not. After--unless the sea actively looked stormy still--I'm not sure I would know.

Seas can be stronger than usual for days after a strong storm has passed and the weather has returned to "normal." Also, one is not "safer" at low tide than at high; low tides typically carry a bad undertow, even in the absence of storms.

I love the ocean, but it is treacherous.

I don't doubts its treachery at all--it's simply that, haven't not lived with said treachery, I don't know its rules, only to be wary ...

I couldn't believe it when I read those reports. I suspect these people will get posthumous Darwin Awards.

Even a calm sea, in some areas, must be watched at all times. We lost our camera when a rogue wave hit us while walking on a Mendocino beach. I was climbing on a rock and was able to hold onto it when water suddenly poured all over me from above. My husband was farther up on the beach, but he got knocked down. Neither of us saw the wave - me, because I was climbing and Rick, because he was trying to take my picture.

We were lucky. Every year, people die on those beaches because of rogue waves. There are warnings everywhere: "don't turn your back on the ocean!"

It's a serious warning.

Here in greater San Francisco we have many, many dangerous beaches, with powerful currents leading directly out to sea. They are signposted, aggressively, including the phrase PEOPLE HAVE DIED WADING.

People still die wading every year.

I feel like we need vocabulary lessons for Sesame Street. "Rip. Tide. Riptide!"

I guess I have to raise both hands. I live near relatively placid Lake Michigan, although I would have never used that term before reading theses posts. Lake Michigan is an inland sea, it does have it's rip tide areas (usually posted) but... After Mardott and Jonquil's posts... Don't turn your back on the ocean? People have died wading? Holy crap! I promise to take all of the postings much, much more seriously during my lake side vacation this week. (Looking sideways at Lake wondering if it's planning something...)

Lake Michigan can turn vicious with little warning. Back in the '60s or '70s, a bunch of people out fishing for coho salmon ended up dying. They thought little trailerable outboard boats were safe offshore . . .

Certainly Lake Michigan is famously dangerous to boaters, especially when the "gales of November come early," but it's not like you are gonna get sucked off the beach by rogue waves, although there are some strong rip tides along the Door County peninsula. People die out on the lake every year, usually there is more of an alcohol/inexperience component then weather. Near shore disasters in Milwaukee are more about non-swimmers falling off the seawall/pier or through the ice then anything involving riptides or waves.

I think the coho fisherman debacle (long time ago, fading memory) involved people thinking that because they could *launch* a trailer boat from a beach, they'd be able to *land* that boat on that beach. Without dying in the process.

This happened on the Michigan side of the lake, below Leland, where actual harbors get scarce for a ways.

My family came from Traverse City, so we noticed.

Yeah, there was another sad story on Lake Michigan a few years ago when some teens took paddle boats onto the lake. The one survivor jumped off and swam back to shore as they drifted out, if I remember correctly.

B. O'Brien

But I had no idea about the ocean, either - with only lake experiences. (B)

between the oceans and the rivers, the Water Gods have been well fed this year.

Long Live Darwin!

What part of "Don't go there, its dangerous, you could be killed" do people not translate. It is not as if the rangers were speaking a lesser dialect of Rigellian for frells sake.

I once slipped slightly on the edge of a little pit and was horrified when my soon-to-be husband rushed to 'rescue' me. T'was only a 125 foot pit. Problem was, y'see, little ol' me was VERY securely attached to the ropes and he was anything BUT! It can be perfectly safe on the edge of even a 500 plus ft pit, but it can also be very UN-safe without being secured to rigging that will keep you from smashing yourself on a bottom so far below.

There's a tricky passage in one of our more interesting southeastern pit-cave complexes that's called "The No-brains Traverse" because many years ago on a survey/exploration party of a dozen or so cavers (and NO more spare ropes!), all but one said "NO WAY" and flatly refused to follow the brainless leader who clearly thought because _his_ long legs could (and did) reach between one wall and the other, so would everybody else's. He was, so I understand, somewhat pissed when the rest "wimped out", but nobody's dead and mangled body had to be hauled out of the system a few days later.

There is danger anywhere, anytime, under many possible conditions. One just has to have a very healthy respect for the conditions, know your equipment thoroughly, heed your limitations, and use plenty of common sense.

Fellow, National Speleological Society

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PSA: The World is not Disneyland, Part Four Thousand Forty-Two

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My hand is raised

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