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Tue 28 Jun, 2005 11:16 am
Played hooky yesterday and went to the beach and went fishing. Five young male asian students showed up and went swimming - right in the middle of the rip current I was working with my bait. They ignored my requests that they move (their English was poor to none). Next thing you know, one of them is going out to sea, then two more of them who tried to rescue him. They would up way out there for a long, long time. One made it back in after finally following (my) direction to swim to south, parallel to the shore, to some shallows, the other two got taken by the current and spit out to the north, in some heavy surf and were rescued by a couple of water polo players who were at the beach for, of all things, a cave wedding.
Felt pretty helpless, at least we had cell coverage and were able to dial 911. No one drowned, thank God. They were in pretty bad shape though. It was very, very scary. The Pacific of northern CA is a very dangerous place to swim.
One really bad thing was that there were no surfers at the beach whatsoever. No boards available to go out for rescue - no lifeguard - and the surf was so strong. Back in my younger days I may have tried to go in after them, but even then it would have been a mistake. Instead I was trying to stop people from making the same mistake, most gave me an angry look, but then changed their minds about being a hero once they saw how angry the surf was. The water polo players rescued two almost dead kids, too tired to take you down with them. Those three were really lucky.
Sounds like it all ended up okay... nice job cjhsa.
I remember my first trip to the Pacific ocean. I wasn't even out very far and the cold water made my legs cramp up. I started paddling in to shore with my arms and kicked only when the cramps went away long enough. Once I made it close to shore was the hard part. I'd get real close and then the surf would carry me back out. I'd struggle to get back and it would carry me out again. I could feel myself getting real tired and wasn't quite sure what to do. It was pretty scary.
Swimming in the Pacific without any floatation device, and not knowing what you are doing, is an experiment in Darwinism. Just getting close the the water can be extraordinarily dangerous.
I never had much of a desire to go far out into the ocean. Luckily they ended up ok though. Must have sucked, knowing you can't really do much about it.
In the Poconos the angry water gods inhabit the Deleware River and the old quarries and ore holes left from strip mining.
We've had three deaths so far this year.
Kids don't realize that natural forces were not created as a playground for the unskilled and that water is not their natural habitat.
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