16/08/2022
🏊♂️ Going swimming during the ??
🚨Here’s some very important advice🚨
⚠️The water is a dangerous place⚠️
1. The easiest thing to remember is that often the safest/calmest most enticing looking area along a beach is usually a rip.
A rip is usually the area void of wave activity and appears darker and deceptively calmer. All that water coming in via waves has to go back out somehow, this is what a rip is. (see pics).
2. If you are caught in a rip, DO NOT PANIC.
Go into floating mode and raise one arm as a distress signal.
Some rips can move at 3 times the speed of an olympic swimmer, you WON'T win! If you cannot swim out to either side of the rip, just go with it.
3. If you have kids, show them these pictures, educate them and make them aware.
Obviously the safest place to swim is always between the flags on a patrolled beach, but this isn't always practical given the immensity of our coast line and number of beautiful beaches. Rips are not hard to identify, and 10 mins observation before entering the water is much easier than body retrieval.
This posting may save a life. ❤
{Irish Water Safety}
