as a fellow Michigander ginger is also
from michigan both of us got caught rip
currents in Lake Michigan so fascinated
by this next story you're about to do
and as a child and growing up there it
happens all the time so in the summer
and spring especially in the Great Lakes
and also in the oceans it's something
that I've covered for years but this
time I went inside the rip current
myself in the ocean and here's what I
learned it's one of the oceans most
deadly threats more deadly than
lightning hurricanes and tornadoes
combined in an average year it is a rip
kony it's kind of like a river pulling
out to sea the strongest swimmer does
not match up to the power of the ocean
that power forms as water piles up close
to the shore then there's a break in the
sandbar or bottom and a fast-moving
river rushes back out to sea for my
natural inclination it in one all right
so this is it I am suiting up it's funny
because I haven't had a wetsuit on and I
don't know how long but let me grab this
I feel like the Avengers the superhero
back way so when you enter the water in
front of us you're going to take a
diagonal path out it should just carry
you northerly and diagonal out to sea
surrounded by safety Patti one of the
San Diego guards will be with me the
whole time and above a Coast Guard
chopper is mana
everything I am definitely nervous and
mostly nervous because they tell me the
water temperature is somewhere in the
low 60s
but you step down I can feel get deeper
quickly and the brook the waves are not
working area that's a good sign that
you're in a rip current within seconds
I'm sucked out to sea and now I am
really Rick Rick I had been pulled
hundreds of yards in less than a minute
look how far I am from the beach
well people end up doing is they're
swimming and all they do is look
straight out when you turn around all
the sudden you're hundreds of yards from
where you started and that happened in
seconds so my instinct is to swim
correctly where I came from but then I'm
going to have to go against the current
it's what most people do and that's a
mistake
swimming is very labored definitely not
easy and made absolutely no progress
then wave after wave and panic sets in
people look at where they started and
that's where they want to swim to and
when they can't get closer to where they
started they don't swim straight in they
panic they get tired and they're more
tired to get the more they panic one arm
up and that's where the guards come in
they have me on the board and onto the
beach in no time look at these rip
currents from above they can pop up
anywhere along the beach but what you
need to know they always form near peers
and jetties we just got in within two
minutes we are hundreds of yards from
the shore and quickly we would be out in
the ocean to the current work area along
the jetty all the way out and when I
tried to swim straight back
occurred a bit no matter how hard I
tried I was not able to even make any
progress at all this is the strongest
represent in all day the only reason I
feel comfortable doing this it's
personal how powerful they are but also
because I gotta write that's why you
really have to respect it and know that
it's a it's a larger being than you are
the point of me freezing and getting
smacked in the face with these waves
though to make sure you don't need help
in the future and a pleasant swim in the
ocean will be just that taking out a lot
of water there here's what you need to
know to stay alive if you get caught in
a rip current this is very important as
we go into this season number one you
have to stay relaxed next this animation
shows it rip currents are not that wide
so if you swim parallel to the beach you
will likely get away from that river of
fast-moving water and then you can get
back to where you came from you just
don't have to go straight back so
there's home all these tips but they
said number one if you have a
lifeguarded beaches a non lifeguard a
beach you got to do that great tips
great peace Thank You ginger