Drownings: Lifesavers urge young men to swim against the rip as we head into warmer months
THEY may think they’re bulletproof but young men aged between 16 and 39 are most at risk of getting caught and drowning in a rip. Sur Life Saving Australia show you how to survive if you get caught in one.
NSW
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THEY may think they’re bulletproof but young men aged between 16 and 39 are most at risk of getting caught and drowning in a rip.
Half of all 230 swimmers who drowned in a rip in Australia over the last 12 years have been young men.
“All too often young men have an attitude of overconfidence and enter the surf before checking to the ocean conditions, sadly, that overconfidence can prove deadly,” Surf Life Saving Australia National Risk and Coastal Safety Manager Shane Daw said.
More people die in rips every year than die from shark attacks, floods and cyclones combined.
And yet 57 per cent of surveyed swimmers said they don’t always look for rips before swimming, according to frightening new research from the country’s peak lifesaving body.
Even when swimmers do survey the conditions, two out of three people who think they can identify a rip current actually can’t.
Despite the dangers, just over half of beachgoers ignore the efforts of surf life savers and swim outside the red and yellow flags at patrolled beaches.
RELATED: HERO DAD DROWNS SAVING STRANGERS KIDS CAUGHT IN RIP
Forget the myth tourists who come from landlocked countries are more likely to lose control than homegrown swimmers, as international tourists represent just 16 per cent of drownings in rips.
Swimmers who get swept out by a strong current should start by raising an arm and calling out for help, according to surf life savers.
If there’s no help at hand, swimmers are told to float with the current in the hope it returns them to a shallow sandbank or swim parallel to the breaking waves to escape the rip.
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