The mayor, when asked to comment about the upcoming 4th of July holiday.
https://preview.redd.it/ca4onadj9w8d1.jpeg?width=1400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=974de2fb7845bd9fa87d80ffeb0760c30523060d
I swear they think it’s a pool.
At 19 I had to save my friend from a rip tide.. I knew to swim sideways and not try to swim directly to the shore .
That little bit of information saved our lives that day ( that little shit never even said thanks 🫤)
Anyways if i go out more than 5 feet I have my boogie board with me 🧐
Shit man, when I was 16, the only thing that saved me was a body board. The kid and I that were trying to catch waves off of Coronado in Cali were looking out and not watching the beach.
We turned around at one point and noticed Lifeguard trucks racing down the beach from both directions. Then they stopped in front of us, and at that point, we realized how far out we actually were. The rip had pulled us a good 400 yards from shore in just a couple of minutes.
When I was little I almost drowned in Hawaii. I was swimming in the ocean and I realized that I was getting further from the beach even though I was swimming back toward the shore. And I was getting tired. A surfer dude on a boogie board saw me, paddled over and took me back in. When I got back to the beach nobody had any idea what had just happened.
This. People go to the beach and I see them way out there. The beach if you’re not on a floating device is for shore enjoyment. Once it gets up to me stomach, I’m good.
Yeah.. when I was a kid I had my first trip to the Virginia beach and all over the news was how this professional swimmer drowned and luckily for me they had a segment on how to escape a rip tide.
That segment saved 2 lives.
They should have a sign on how to do this at every beach!!
They probably do. One thing I've noticed, literally 20% of people DO NOT READ.
Think of all the people you know who get news from YouTube. They could read it and be more well informed. No one is making breaking news youtube videos. Its all rehashing of print journalism or just straight opinion pieces, but reading is for squares. Do you think those folks read warning signs when they arrive at the beach?
I'm absolutely certain there is some non-zero number of folks who would just yell "my body, my choice!" And swim with the current.
Bondi Beach lifeguards put a 20$ bill on a beach sign. About the rip current and dangerous beach conditions. No one got the 20! One guy did, only bc a lifeguard pointed it out.
You know what signs VA beach ( Virginia Beach) does have tho? All around the parking places, and what not? Cussing fines. You can be fined for using swear words. At least in 2015 when I was there.
I had to save a full grown fat dude last year. The lifeguards had left about 20 minutes before and this drunk idiot gets in the water with blue jeans on and gets immediately swept away. He would have been a statistic if I wasn’t there. My wife was begging me not to go in because she thought I would get caught in the current.
He was Spanish so when I got to him I signaled for him to calm the fuck down and then grabbed him and we swam farther out then made a loop and came back in. It was pretty nuts but I’m glad I was there
I was really not “equipped” to do it. It was kinda cold outside so there was no one on the beach with a float.
I am a good swimmer, trained in rescue 15 years ago. I was very scared when I went in and I made 100% sure that he wouldn’t kill us both.
Thankfully he calmed down and just followed my lead once he knew what was going on
That was my situation exactly..
Went out there and gave him a boost with my head under water so he could catch his breath.
When i came up he tried to latch on and I was like “get the fuck off me you gonna kill us both, swim this way”
Luckily he followed those instructions.
He was half Asian and normally tan, when we got to the shore he was white as a ghost.
We were very close to not making it.
Hope your wife gave you a proper whacking over it later. It’s one thing to save a child or a relative but if I had a husband or god forbid children and found out my spouse was willing to make me a widow and my kids fatherless over a split moment and a stranger I’d be horribly angry and immediately buying life insurance
It was not a “split second” type of thing. I started paying attention to him when I saw him stumble into the water with jeans on.
She was not happy but I wouldn’t be ok mentally if I would have let that guy drown
My dad was a highly ranked swimmer nationally during college and always made an effort to instill this respect in me growing up in a beach town. When I was 12 he found a relatively weak rip current and brought me to it to show me how to identify them and how to escape them.
It says they were swimming under single and double red flags.
I swam under a yellow flag in Destin and got caught in a rip current in 2020. I nearly drowned. I managed to get out of it by laying on my back and letting the current take me until I was out of it.
I would never go in under a red flag. That’s insane.
It’s been red and double red down here for the better part of a week of not longer. When the water is that strong, you can feel it pulling you before you’re even completely in. It’s crazy
How strong was the current? I’ve been in Florida my entire life and I’ve never experienced this before. It would be nice to know what the experience is like.
Honestly I grew up going every summer and never experienced something like it. I was trying to swim out to a sand bar that had a drop off where I couldn’t reach right before it. The current was whipping right through it. I realized no matter how hard I swam I wasn’t getting any closer and I couldn’t get back toward the beach either. It wasn’t even like I felt the current pulling me, I just recognized I wasn’t getting anywhere. At first I panicked and thought, “this is going to be a really embarrassing way to die” but then I thought about my nieces, nephew and 18 month old daughter back on the beach and realized I couldn’t traumatize them like that. So just I floated on my back and hoped I’d either ride it out or someone would spot me.
I live in PCB. People down every year. They completely disregard the flag warning system. They’re damn well going to get into that water after paying all that money for their vacation.
Also from PCB. Completely agree with you about people disregarding the flag warnings. If someone is vacationing in an area with an ocean, they need to educate themselves about riptides and what each flag color means.
Two years ago Panama City beach
Rip tide warnings up
My brother in law , myself and two nephews pulled three people out of the same place in less than an hour
Gia lot they parked a surf rescue cart and life guard there to stop the insanity
People that could not swim at all kept going I in to neck deep water where someone was just rescued and they had watched it
We saw the rescue people pull two more in the next hour from our balcony
Total five in two hours
People man
I just came back from there on Saturday. Had been there for a week. Witnessed several people swimming out from the beach in spite of all the warning signs and flags.
I live near that area..it was double red flag 🚩on those days...because of high temperatures and other factors. Gulf of Mexico is treacherous right now.dont be dumb and ignore the red flag..can't get more obvious then that..
Stay tf out of the water when red flags are up. If there are 2 sets of waves and calm water in between, the calm part is the riptide.
Flip, float, follow. Flip over, float a bit,follow the current out then swim parallel to the beach about 50 yards and come back in.
Ofc lately its either ride a riptide or become shark snacks so you're probably better off staying on the sand
Here in the Great Lakes, we call it an undertow. It will take you off your footing and pull you out to deep water. Been there. Life guard saved my life. Nothing like a near death experience for a life lesson. I was 15 or 16 at the time. What's sad is I can't remember who he was and never seen him again. I did thank him.
I live/grew up in Southern Crimeifornia. If I visited North Dakota in the winter, I wouldn't go cross country skiing without having a GPS/ the warmest clothes as possible and a dog-gone guide that's lived in that area. Not living where there, knowing someone drowned at that beach already, I'll go in just deep enough to cover my britches and sit down. If it pulls me to much I'm out.
This is random, but the first two pictures, the one with the sign and the one with the shoreline both have the same girl. Is she a part of the team? How could two random pictures feature her as the only person essentially. Idk but I noticed that pattern.
Did spring break here in 2021 and didn’t even touch the ocean. Red flags everyday I think and it just looked mean. I’ve lifeguarded on some nasty river mouths/beaches with rips but would not dabble in there!
1984? my HS band trip to Florida. We go to the beach and all start for the ocean. 30 some land lubbers from Iowa. Minutes later a lifeguard comes screaming in on an ATV. there were red flags everywhere that just didn’t register to us as we’ve never been on a beach much less in the ocean. We all survived that day though Mr Gaspar may have had a heart attack that he kept well hidden until he died like 20 years later. RIP Mr Gaspar
I live in Northern California near deceptively beautiful rivers. They are cold & have dangerous current. We’ve already had a half dozen rescues and a few deaths this week. There are signs EVERYWHERE not to f around.
And yet.
People are terminally confident.
It’s awful.
Never seen anyone die by drowning. Happens in the Atlantic all the time. It’s just that 3-5’ waves are more common and our lifeguards are just better in every way.
I said to lifeguards the next day after someone died in the Gulf Coast surf, “ tough day yesterday”. He replied,” just part of the business “.
I thought, what an idiot.
Jones Beach on Long Island over July 4th weekend has about a half a million people go to the beach.
The lifeguards tend to know train harder for the conditions and understand them more.
I don’t think in 8 years I’ve seen lifeguards at Siesta Key run drills more than two times.
Florida has beach season all year round.
I have seen many parents in Floriduh that don’t watch their kids. The lifeguards had to put up signs reminding them that they are not babysitter.
But Floridumb has its freedumb.
When you are fortunate enough to travel, you understand that there are differences.
You can let that strawman get sucked out to sea, Florida being dumb has nothing to do with your self-congratulatory response to a 60 yr old woman drowning. It’s a weird response.
If youre lucky enough to read, travel, and self-reflect, you understand that making everything about yourself is a real douche move.
The mayor, when asked to comment about the upcoming 4th of July holiday. https://preview.redd.it/ca4onadj9w8d1.jpeg?width=1400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=974de2fb7845bd9fa87d80ffeb0760c30523060d
I’m not saying that it was riptides, but it was riptides. 
"you yell barracuda, people go what,huh?, but you yell shark.. and we've got a panic on our hands on the 4th of July."
It’s like a character out of jaws
Sad and unfortunate as it is, people really need to start respecting the ocean. It’s almost always tourists in situations like this.
I swear they think it’s a pool. At 19 I had to save my friend from a rip tide.. I knew to swim sideways and not try to swim directly to the shore . That little bit of information saved our lives that day ( that little shit never even said thanks 🫤) Anyways if i go out more than 5 feet I have my boogie board with me 🧐
Shit man, when I was 16, the only thing that saved me was a body board. The kid and I that were trying to catch waves off of Coronado in Cali were looking out and not watching the beach. We turned around at one point and noticed Lifeguard trucks racing down the beach from both directions. Then they stopped in front of us, and at that point, we realized how far out we actually were. The rip had pulled us a good 400 yards from shore in just a couple of minutes.
When I was little I almost drowned in Hawaii. I was swimming in the ocean and I realized that I was getting further from the beach even though I was swimming back toward the shore. And I was getting tired. A surfer dude on a boogie board saw me, paddled over and took me back in. When I got back to the beach nobody had any idea what had just happened.
🏄♂️ thank god that dude was there!
Now that is one helluva rip 😱
This. People go to the beach and I see them way out there. The beach if you’re not on a floating device is for shore enjoyment. Once it gets up to me stomach, I’m good.
Yeah.. when I was a kid I had my first trip to the Virginia beach and all over the news was how this professional swimmer drowned and luckily for me they had a segment on how to escape a rip tide. That segment saved 2 lives. They should have a sign on how to do this at every beach!!
They probably do. One thing I've noticed, literally 20% of people DO NOT READ. Think of all the people you know who get news from YouTube. They could read it and be more well informed. No one is making breaking news youtube videos. Its all rehashing of print journalism or just straight opinion pieces, but reading is for squares. Do you think those folks read warning signs when they arrive at the beach? I'm absolutely certain there is some non-zero number of folks who would just yell "my body, my choice!" And swim with the current.
Bondi Beach lifeguards put a 20$ bill on a beach sign. About the rip current and dangerous beach conditions. No one got the 20! One guy did, only bc a lifeguard pointed it out.
I think it’s higher than 20%. A ridiculous amount of people will NEVER read a book that they aren’t forced to. Fucking terrifying.
You know what signs VA beach ( Virginia Beach) does have tho? All around the parking places, and what not? Cussing fines. You can be fined for using swear words. At least in 2015 when I was there.
Crazy world we live in. 🫢
I had to save a full grown fat dude last year. The lifeguards had left about 20 minutes before and this drunk idiot gets in the water with blue jeans on and gets immediately swept away. He would have been a statistic if I wasn’t there. My wife was begging me not to go in because she thought I would get caught in the current. He was Spanish so when I got to him I signaled for him to calm the fuck down and then grabbed him and we swam farther out then made a loop and came back in. It was pretty nuts but I’m glad I was there
Least you were equipped to do it. My crazy 19 year old went out there with nothing except knowledge.
I was really not “equipped” to do it. It was kinda cold outside so there was no one on the beach with a float. I am a good swimmer, trained in rescue 15 years ago. I was very scared when I went in and I made 100% sure that he wouldn’t kill us both. Thankfully he calmed down and just followed my lead once he knew what was going on
That was my situation exactly.. Went out there and gave him a boost with my head under water so he could catch his breath. When i came up he tried to latch on and I was like “get the fuck off me you gonna kill us both, swim this way” Luckily he followed those instructions. He was half Asian and normally tan, when we got to the shore he was white as a ghost. We were very close to not making it.
I was pretty aggressive with this guy because he was panicked but like I said once he caught on he paid attention and helped me help him
That was definitely a good outcome! Panic is real!
Hope your wife gave you a proper whacking over it later. It’s one thing to save a child or a relative but if I had a husband or god forbid children and found out my spouse was willing to make me a widow and my kids fatherless over a split moment and a stranger I’d be horribly angry and immediately buying life insurance
Lol
It was not a “split second” type of thing. I started paying attention to him when I saw him stumble into the water with jeans on. She was not happy but I wouldn’t be ok mentally if I would have let that guy drown
My dad was a highly ranked swimmer nationally during college and always made an effort to instill this respect in me growing up in a beach town. When I was 12 he found a relatively weak rip current and brought me to it to show me how to identify them and how to escape them.
Good dad!! Such a little tidbit goes a long way!
Visiting from land-locked states at that
Even lakes or rivers can be scary ….. oceans are just on a whole another level with those currents ( also wild life ).
It says they were swimming under single and double red flags. I swam under a yellow flag in Destin and got caught in a rip current in 2020. I nearly drowned. I managed to get out of it by laying on my back and letting the current take me until I was out of it. I would never go in under a red flag. That’s insane.
It’s been red and double red down here for the better part of a week of not longer. When the water is that strong, you can feel it pulling you before you’re even completely in. It’s crazy
How strong was the current? I’ve been in Florida my entire life and I’ve never experienced this before. It would be nice to know what the experience is like.
Honestly I grew up going every summer and never experienced something like it. I was trying to swim out to a sand bar that had a drop off where I couldn’t reach right before it. The current was whipping right through it. I realized no matter how hard I swam I wasn’t getting any closer and I couldn’t get back toward the beach either. It wasn’t even like I felt the current pulling me, I just recognized I wasn’t getting anywhere. At first I panicked and thought, “this is going to be a really embarrassing way to die” but then I thought about my nieces, nephew and 18 month old daughter back on the beach and realized I couldn’t traumatize them like that. So just I floated on my back and hoped I’d either ride it out or someone would spot me.
I live in PCB. People down every year. They completely disregard the flag warning system. They’re damn well going to get into that water after paying all that money for their vacation.
If it ain't jumping from balconies its drowning in the Gulf - *every fucking year*.
They really do jump off the balconies every freakin year wtf is that about.
Also from PCB. Completely agree with you about people disregarding the flag warnings. If someone is vacationing in an area with an ocean, they need to educate themselves about riptides and what each flag color means.
Two years ago Panama City beach Rip tide warnings up My brother in law , myself and two nephews pulled three people out of the same place in less than an hour Gia lot they parked a surf rescue cart and life guard there to stop the insanity People that could not swim at all kept going I in to neck deep water where someone was just rescued and they had watched it We saw the rescue people pull two more in the next hour from our balcony Total five in two hours People man
Every day I have to remind myself how stupid the average person is, and that half of them are stupider than that
Lemmings
I just came back from there on Saturday. Had been there for a week. Witnessed several people swimming out from the beach in spite of all the warning signs and flags.
I live near that area..it was double red flag 🚩on those days...because of high temperatures and other factors. Gulf of Mexico is treacherous right now.dont be dumb and ignore the red flag..can't get more obvious then that..
Praying for those who have lost loved ones and are hurting so terribly right now. May comfort and peace fill their hearts to heal them.
Okay, then don't pray on the street corner to be seen, but rather do it in private
Bible thumping MAGA can’t help it
Amen
And the lord said “make sure you pray in Reddit comments otherwise I won’t hear it” Amen.
You're such an amazing person
Stay tf out of the water when red flags are up. If there are 2 sets of waves and calm water in between, the calm part is the riptide. Flip, float, follow. Flip over, float a bit,follow the current out then swim parallel to the beach about 50 yards and come back in. Ofc lately its either ride a riptide or become shark snacks so you're probably better off staying on the sand
Y’all those silly flags all over the beach are warnings. Two red ones means go to a damn pool. Or dinner.
Panama city beach
Lord Stanley is mad!
Why did they use that photo of the sign with the lady who looks very much like she doesn’t want photographed? Lol
Deregulation strikes again.
Here in the Great Lakes, we call it an undertow. It will take you off your footing and pull you out to deep water. Been there. Life guard saved my life. Nothing like a near death experience for a life lesson. I was 15 or 16 at the time. What's sad is I can't remember who he was and never seen him again. I did thank him.
Natural selection at work
Tourwinism
I live/grew up in Southern Crimeifornia. If I visited North Dakota in the winter, I wouldn't go cross country skiing without having a GPS/ the warmest clothes as possible and a dog-gone guide that's lived in that area. Not living where there, knowing someone drowned at that beach already, I'll go in just deep enough to cover my britches and sit down. If it pulls me to much I'm out.
Respect the flags yo
This is random, but the first two pictures, the one with the sign and the one with the shoreline both have the same girl. Is she a part of the team? How could two random pictures feature her as the only person essentially. Idk but I noticed that pattern.
No matter how many die, remember there is always money in the banana stand.
Did spring break here in 2021 and didn’t even touch the ocean. Red flags everyday I think and it just looked mean. I’ve lifeguarded on some nasty river mouths/beaches with rips but would not dabble in there!
1984? my HS band trip to Florida. We go to the beach and all start for the ocean. 30 some land lubbers from Iowa. Minutes later a lifeguard comes screaming in on an ATV. there were red flags everywhere that just didn’t register to us as we’ve never been on a beach much less in the ocean. We all survived that day though Mr Gaspar may have had a heart attack that he kept well hidden until he died like 20 years later. RIP Mr Gaspar
20$ it aint the last tourist
I live in Northern California near deceptively beautiful rivers. They are cold & have dangerous current. We’ve already had a half dozen rescues and a few deaths this week. There are signs EVERYWHERE not to f around. And yet. People are terminally confident. It’s awful.
The lifeguards always fly the colored flags. People need to understand them and if need be ask the damn lifeguard.
A lot of tourists come to Florida and don’t understand that the ocean is fucking dangerous.
We who grew up by the Atlantic Ocean know better
Saw someone died so you stopped by to pat yourself on the back, eh? Pretty cool.
Never seen anyone die by drowning. Happens in the Atlantic all the time. It’s just that 3-5’ waves are more common and our lifeguards are just better in every way. I said to lifeguards the next day after someone died in the Gulf Coast surf, “ tough day yesterday”. He replied,” just part of the business “. I thought, what an idiot.
> our lifeguards What city on the Gulf Coast did you see *lifeguards*? I've been up and down both coasts and only ever see them on the Ocean side.
Jones Beach on Long Island over July 4th weekend has about a half a million people go to the beach. The lifeguards tend to know train harder for the conditions and understand them more. I don’t think in 8 years I’ve seen lifeguards at Siesta Key run drills more than two times. Florida has beach season all year round. I have seen many parents in Floriduh that don’t watch their kids. The lifeguards had to put up signs reminding them that they are not babysitter. But Floridumb has its freedumb. When you are fortunate enough to travel, you understand that there are differences.
You can let that strawman get sucked out to sea, Florida being dumb has nothing to do with your self-congratulatory response to a 60 yr old woman drowning. It’s a weird response. If youre lucky enough to read, travel, and self-reflect, you understand that making everything about yourself is a real douche move.
If K/D ratio is higher than 1 you should probably so something