bondipom

Spiders, snakes and crocs are nothing compared to the loss of life suffered at the beaches. This is what can happen if you do not swim between the flags.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...5E1702,00.html

Warning issued after tourist drowns
By Rosemary Desmond
April 01, 2004
SURF lifesaving officials today issued a fresh warning to tourists after a young German woman drowned in treacherous beach conditions on the Sunshine Coast.

The 24-year-old woman, from the German town of Templin, had been swimming at an unpatrolled beach at Noosa North Shore when she became caught in a rip and drowned about 5pm (AEST) yesterday.

Her name has not been released.

Surf Life Saving Queensland operations manager Peter Dawes today warned visitors to take care and swim between the flags.

sjn2003

Yeah, swimming between the flags is the safest thing to do but its not surprising that many people don't when you have a patrolled zone of say 30m on a beach of 0.5 mile plus such as Manly.

Why don't they have more lifeguards and wider zones? Is it a cash thing or is it the surfer lobby not wanting to stay out of a wider zone ??

Also, what struck me as crazy was being on Dee Why, the lifeguards clock off for the day at 4.30pm just as all the kids etc hit the water after school/work??? Is that the same on all Sydney beaches ?

bundy

Plus if you swim between the flags you increase your chances of getting chatted up/chatting up the lifeguards

bondipom

At Bondi the lifeguards knock off at a similiar time. During summer the northern half of the beach is reserved for swimmers. The flags are on the 30m strips where the sand bank is and there is a low risk of a rip.

In small swell the guards are not too worried about swimmers at the south end however during a big swell when the rips are dangerous they order people out of the water.

I use the rips to paddle out and know their power. I have also witnessed those who are clueless about rips and have helped in a rescue of one.

At least with surfers around you have a potential rescue squad.

seang

Family member was a lifeguard at coogee for a number of years-she always wondered why warnings(signs etc) were not in more languages-especially asian as they seem to be weaker swimmers and didnt have prior experience of 'between the flags.(dont know if they have now included it in more languages??)

Taking into a/c the number of people who are in Oz for short holidays and get to hit the beach for maybe a few days -the importance of following the rules may be lost on them.

Only a few years ago North Bondi had a Japenese guy doing beach patrol - when his visa was up they tried to get him a visa to stay as he had been invaluable in helping translating for people looking for advise and also getting details from those rescued-in the end he was unable to stay

wonder how good the german girls english was - could she have understood signs etc

bondipom

Well I prefer south bondi where one is in much more danger of being blinded by white pointers. Dark sunnies are a must for blokes.

PP would not be disappointed by the speedo show there either. Fun for all.

Megalania

Dicky bird said the two are related.

bondipom

The bloke I helped out was a Canadian or American bodyboarder with no flippers. He was exhausted and the waves were pulling him out to a point where a 6ft swell was dumping onto a sandbank. There was a dangerous current sign on the bit of beach he entered the water.

janeyray

hey hey, remember that big rock on your finger!! lol

bundy

No harm in keeping Mr Bundy on his toes...

There are a lot of aussie lifeguards working in Jersey in the summer - there's an exhange programme with some of the Sydney lifeguard clubs. It's always amusing bumping into these aussie lifeguards on this beach on a small rock in a large ocean - Mr Bundy loves it as he gets to revert to his aussie ways.

stotty

I've heard of rips but never had any first-hand experience (fortunately I guess!) - what are they? What causes them? Why are they so dangerous?

bondipom

They are only dangerous when there is no lifeguard watching out for them.

A rip is the concentrated outflow of water brought onshore by waves. Typically you will get a sandbank which the waves break on and either side will be a an underwater gulley where the water flows back out to sea.

The bigger the wave the more powerful the rip. Inexperienced swimmers try and fight the rip by swimming against it. The best thing to do is wave for a lifeguard. If you are a strong swimmer you can swim along the beach and out of the rip.

stotty

Cheers BP - nice one