These mysterious currents are responsible for hundreds of drownings but there is a dangerous degree of complacency about them
  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    2·
    9 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    Rip currents are responsible for hundreds of drownings and tens of thousands of lifeguard rescues on beaches around the world every year.

    In 1902, William Gocher, a newspaper editor probably trying to drum up some news, defied the ban on daytime swimming and went for a dip at Sydney’s Manly beach and was immediately arrested.

    Although the motivation for his actions remains unknown, it is often documented that this “hero of the surf” opened the floodgates for Sydneysiders to start swimming en masse during the daytime, whereupon many drowned – mostly in rips.

    Since then, lifeguards and lifesavers around the world have made an awful lot of rescues and probably saved tens of thousands of lives from the perils of rip currents.

    Maybe then, from the word go, rip currents would have been recognised as the biggest hazard on our beaches and would have generated the interest and attention among the public and media that they deserve.

    In 1967, Harold Holt, the then Australian prime minister, went for a swim just before Christmas at Cheviot beach near Portsea, in Victoria, only to drown in a rip.

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