Surviving Phuket’s rip currents: everything has changed

By The Thaiger

 

 

Rip currents are strong, narrow seaward flowing currents, like ‘rivers of the sea’, that exist on many beaches when waves are breaking across wide areas. These potentially deadly currents are also responsible for the vast majority of beach rescues by lifeguards around the world, and are the main cause of beach related drownings. Phuket is no exception, as rip currents exist on many beaches during the monsoon season from May to November, and numerous people, usually tourists, have been caught in rips and drowned.

 

Unfortunately, studies have shown that many people have a poor understanding of what rip currents are, and more than two-thirds of beachgoers can’t identify what rip currents look like. In Phuket, due to the high transient tourist population, this number is likely much higher.

 

New information brought to light by recent scientific research and experiments in rip currents, now reveals that much of what experts used to believe about them is oversimplified, and has significant implications for how people should actually react if they find themselves caught in a rip current.

 

Full story: https://thethaiger.com/news/phuket/surviving-phukets-rip-currents-everything-has-changed

 

 

-- © Copyright The Thaiger 2018-09-09

Nothing much new on that article on how to handle rips.

 

On top of that, IMO very poorly written and confusing article.

51 minutes ago, stevenl said:

Nothing much new on that article on how to handle rips.

On top of that, IMO very poorly written and confusing article.

 

Ok. However, the benefit of not doing what you ask is that readers are guaranteed multiple stories on the subject of drowned victims who were  not educated on the subject.

BTW, the people who need to read about riptides do not read Thaiger. More likely the  peruse Shanghai Tattler, or Moscow Mirror.

Indeed nothing new: ebb and flow exists since we have seas, oceans and big lakes.  Just remember with flow the water rises the main current is to the beach  and the under current is not so strong, however during the ebb flow the water goes out and special the under current is very strong and very dangerous for people  that can't swim and just try to walk around in the water, the flow will bring them to deeper water and they drown. If you can't swim watch the tides...lol

Channel rips are fun.  Just relax and go for a ride down the beach.

Most Aussie know a rip when they see one,just study the water a few mins before going in,if get caught go with flow,swim to side,usually wont take you too far out....usually.

21 hours ago, stevenl said:

Nothing much new on that article on how to handle rips.

 

On top of that, IMO very poorly written and confusing article.

As an Aussie, I understood it all... maybe the original article wasn't written with you in mind, as for "floating" many Aussie know this, but just how many don't and therefore panic, you really should stop thinking about yourself, there are many other people in the world.

19 hours ago, RotMahKid said:

Indeed nothing new: ebb and flow exists since we have seas, oceans and big lakes.  Just remember with flow the water rises the main current is to the beach  and the under current is not so strong, however during the ebb flow the water goes out and special the under current is very strong and very dangerous for people  that can't swim and just try to walk around in the water, the flow will bring them to deeper water and they drown. If you can't swim watch the tides...lol

From what you have written it is obvious you do NOT understand what a rip is, it has nothing to do with the normal "ebb and flow" of the tides.

21 hours ago, geriatrickid said:

 

Ok. However, the benefit of not doing what you ask is that readers are guaranteed multiple stories on the subject of drowned victims who were  not educated on the subject.

BTW, the people who need to read about riptides do not read Thaiger. More likely the  peruse Shanghai Tattler, or Moscow Mirror.

So what do I ask? You have me curious.

47 minutes ago, Aussie999 said:

As an Aussie, I understood it all... maybe the original article wasn't written with you in mind, as for "floating" many Aussie know this, but just how many don't and therefore panic, you really should stop thinking about yourself, there are many other people in the world.

As a non-aussie I understood all as well, just poorly written and nothing new on how to exit a rip. But as a non-aussie maybe my expectations of professional writers are higher than yours.

Constantly amazing to me how ANY subject matter on TVF quickly degenerates into snarky quibbles between a few folks, thus filling half the forum space with nonsense bickering that drowns more people than riptides do, and much faster as well.

 

Some of you folks seriously need to get a life.

19 hours ago, marko kok prong said:

Most Aussie know a rip when they see one,just study the water a few mins before going in,if get caught go with flow,swim to side,usually wont take you too far out....usually.

I'm not an expert, but this seems a good post to me.

I was caught once, and i learned a good lesson.

Still, i watched some videos a while ago, and some current can literally take you from close to the shore, to 100 meters out on the sea in a moment, so to " study the water first " is a good advice.

Just now, RocketDog said:

Constantly amazing to me how ANY subject matter on TVF quickly degenerates into snarky quibbles between a few folks, thus filling half the forum space with nonsense bickering that drowns more people than riptides do, and much faster as well.

 

Some of you folks seriously need to get a life.

And they are having a field day over drinking water now that the car crash story has died down. 

On 9/10/2018 at 7:55 AM, stevenl said:

As a non-aussie I understood all as well, just poorly written and nothing new on how to exit a rip. But as a non-aussie maybe my expectations of professional writers are higher than yours.

Ah, I see you are still thinking of yourself, funny how you are the only whinger, perhaps it's not the writers fault, but simply your comprehension, or lack of it. The article is about saving lives and all you want to do is pick on the way it is written.... grow up.

On ‎9‎/‎10‎/‎2018 at 7:07 AM, RocketDog said:

Constantly amazing to me how ANY subject matter on TVF quickly degenerates into snarky quibbles between a few folks, thus filling half the forum space with nonsense bickering that drowns more people than riptides do, and much faster as well.

 

Some of you folks seriously need to get a life.

"Some of you folks seriously need to get a life."

 

eg:  A snarky quibble.

(autological?)

21 hours ago, Old Croc said:

"Some of you folks seriously need to get a life."

 

eg:  A snarky quibble.

(autological?)

Fair enough Croc. I couldn't help it. At least it wasn't 90% of my post's content.