All Hands Fire Equipment Announces Safety Tips for Surviving When Caught in a Rip Current

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Avoid entering the water when red or yellow flag warnings have been posted...

Neptune, NJ (PRWEB) June 22, 2012

As much as the ocean is an important part of summer recreation, it can also be a dangerous place due to unexpected Rip Currents. Many ocean visitors lack of knowledge in ocean safety and many times when swimming unguarded beaches, proper rescue gear isn't readily available. Approximately one hundred Americans lose their lives to rip currents every year. These deaths account for 80% of all ocean surf-related deaths, and could be prevented by educating swimmers on how to properly recognize and react to rip currents.

Rip currents form when water trapped near the shore by constant waves builds up enough pressure to overcome the water that is coming toward the shore. Rip currents can also occur when there is a lull in wave activity and the excess water near land begins flowing back out to sea. The flow of water forms a channel on the seabed for the current to follow and incoming waves cannot break the channel as the water in the rip current continues to flow out to sea. As the water rushes away from land and shallow water it often pulls anything in it's path out with it, including unsuspecting people that are in the water.

Rip currents can sometimes be identified from shore as an area of unusual choppiness or discoloration, or as an area where water continues to flow outward while other waves are coming in. Rip currents are never stationary or permanent, so constant awareness is required to make sure that no rip currents have formed in any area that was previously deemed safe.

Here are some important tips that can help safeguard against becoming a riptide statistic:

•     Swimmers should never swim alone the buddy system can save lives
•     Any swimmer caught in a rip current must not panic, as the current can easily overtake any swimmer who attempts to fight the flow of water.
•     Whether or not rip currents are present, it is vitally important to always swim near a lifeguard and a safe distance from any jetties.
•     It's important to realize that ocean swimming is not the same as a swimming pool. Waves, winds and currents can suddenly change.
•     It’s advisable to stay out of the water if tired because swimming in waves and currents causes fatigue much quicker than in a pool.
•     Limiting the time in cool ocean water is a good practice as the body tires faster when it’s cold.
•     If caught in a rip current, the swimmer may attempt to escape the current by swimming parallel to shore until they have exited the outward-flowing channel of water and has entered water that is more still or the inward-flowing waves.

Don Colarusso, a firefighter for more than 24 years and leading supplier of Fire Rescue Equipment via the website http://www.allhandsfire.com/cmc-rescue, said “Make sure your kids are wearing pfd's when in the ocean even if lifeguards are on duty and avoid entering the water when red or yellow flag warnings have been posted”

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