“There will be spring high tides, and beachgoers are advised to watch out for strong rips and surges. They are advised to show caution this weekend.” Said NSRI spokesperson Craig Lambinon, or words to that effect, on Algoa FM, carefully pronouncing each word as a spokesperson does, with specific inflexions and emphasis from years of public speaking.
‘Surely this doesn’t need to be an announcement on radio,’ I thought. ‘Surely people see the level of the tide or the strength of a possible rip and react cautiously?’ Is this not a case of making something bigger than what it is. It’s just a spring tide; we get them every two weeks on the full or new moon. C’mon, Mr Lambinon.
In Tune With The Ocean
We often forget, as surfers or ocean-goers, that we are so in tune with the ocean, with tides, waves, surges, swell period, swell direction, ground swells, wind swells, rips and sandbanks and winds that we don’t even think about the. For people who don’t live at the beach and go into the ocean often, this is all foreign to them.
I got to the beach late on Saturday, and my friend Tim was coming out of the water. “That ou paddled for 40 minutes against the rip, ” said Tim. “Eventually I had to paddle out there and show him how to get in. He just kept on paddling against the rip, going nowhere.”
The rip current at Seal Point was moving, super-strong and fast, as the tide was close to full high. All that water surging in had to get out somewhere and somehow. There was no way to beat that thing, with the two options being either swim over to the rocks and negotiate a way in with the waves hitting you or paddle across to the beachbreak.
As we stood there by the showers, a couple were swimming on the inside and were suddenly swept off their feet. They tried to swim across and away from the current, but it was sweeping, and they were caught. It took literal seconds for them to be racing out to sea past us in the carpark.
Roaring Out To Sea
Dirkie jumped into the rip; he was going for a swim anyway, and he calmed the situation down. It took a while, as the Seal Point rip was, in fact, roaring out to sea. He eventually got the guy to the rocks, where he clambered to safety with several people there to help him, with just a few grazes as collateral damage from bouncing on the rocks. However, his partner was having some difficulty, and Dirkie couldn’t get her onto the rocks.
Dennis paddled out and offered to help them across onto the beach break with his twin fin, but the solution was the much shorter route to the rocks. Still, she was very hesitant. So Billy stripped down and jumped off the rocks to help. It turns out that she had recently had hip surgery, so her leg wasn’t fully functional at all, and she couldn’t negotiate a way onto the rocks.
Pudding ran down onto the rocks and threw them a bodyboard, which was gratefully accepted, and she clambered onto it. With her being on the bodyboard, Dirkie and Billy were able to push her through the rip and onto the rocks, where she was helped by several people, as a throng of people had gathered to watch this all go down.
No Lifeguards Yet
It was a minor incident, but no seasonal lifeguards were on duty yet. Had it been a bad day of waves and no surfers around, then this might have played out differently.
The couple were shaken at how fast it all went down but seemed very grateful and thanked everyone involved.
It was inspiring to see everyone work together, especially how the situation was handled calmly and clearly.
Well done to everyone involved, and this situation had a positive outcome. People need to watch that rip this summer. Please keep sending out those NSRI radio broadcasts, Mr Lambinon, sir.
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