FARK.com: (1580279) Thirty people form human chain to save five people from riptide

If you can read this, either the style sheet didn't load or you have an older browser that doesn't support style sheets. Try clearing your browser cache and refreshing the page.

		Thirty people form human chain to save five people from riptide (cbc.ca)		87
		More: Hero

• • •

19128 clicks; posted to Main » on 18 Jul 2005 at 9:31 PM | Favorite | share:

Share this link:

URL:

http://fark.com/go/1580279

Bookmark:

Article Comments close

87 Comments (+0 »)

Archived thread

First | « | 1 | 2 | » | Last | Show all

pistauf_farker		2005-07-18 05:56:29 PM

Too bad they couldn't save them from A-team and Hardcastle & McCormick.

tallguywithglasseson		2005-07-18 06:03:21 PM

Good job, humanity.

rickythepenguin		2005-07-18 06:23:12 PM

maybe they were just playing Red Rover Red Rover. What about that, smart guy?

NikolaiFarkoff		2005-07-18 06:26:17 PM

pistauf with the early lead!

InflatableJesus		2005-07-18 08:53:55 PM

Sounds kinky.

LordPistachio		2005-07-18 09:01:51 PM

mathmatix		2005-07-18 09:28:43 PM

this is good stuff, always reasserts faith in humanity until the next thread......

carrot		2005-07-18 09:33:02 PM

Quick quiz: how many people out of 35 know that in event of riptide you merely need to swim parallel to the shore for a couple hundred feet then come in?

RandomExcess		2005-07-18 09:34:29 PM

did any one else think "daisy chain"?

SSpiffy		2005-07-18 09:34:50 PM

Rip currents are basically harmless unless you are stupid and try to fight them. Yeah, they drag you away from shore, wait for it to stop moving you away from shore, swim 50 feet to the side and swim back in. If you can't swim that well, what thee Fark are you doing in the ocean?

aphexcoil		2005-07-18 09:36:05 PM

Riptides are scary but usually merely the result of an underwater sandbank breaking and causing large volumes of water to rush out to sea. Surviving a riptide is actually very easy so long as you do the following:

don't panic
do not swim against the current -- the current will only take you out so far until it stops.
swim parallel to the shoreline for a few hundred feet
tread water until help arrives or swim back to the beach

majorhopper		2005-07-18 09:38:49 PM

In the US, the rescuers would never recruit "civilians" to help, they would have them arrested if they did.

Go Canada. And I thought Canadians were stupid because they thinkh Brazil and Alaska are on the same continent.

NightWulf		2005-07-18 09:38:59 PM

And all you needed was that 1st guy to lose his grip and you know have 35 darwin canidates instead of 5.

Wolfanoz		2005-07-18 09:39:24 PM

majorhopper		2005-07-18 09:40:30 PM

carrot:

Quick quiz: how many people out of 35 know that in event of riptide you merely need to swim parallel to the shore for a couple hundred feet then come in?

That's in a very old Red Cross swimming book I have somewhere. Makes perfect sense, rips are localized and swimming parallel is fark all easier than trying to outmuscle the sea.

rbuzby		2005-07-18 09:41:14 PM

This is cool.

My friend was caught in a riptide in mexico 5 years ago. I swam over to help, then we were both drowning. We survived somehow, but not before several minutes of major peril, inhaling water, felt like its time to die, god help me, etc etc.

Afterward, I smoked a doob with the Reggae band and my pard took a nap.

BXRWXR		2005-07-18 09:42:26 PM

See kids? Circle Jerks can save lives.

skinink		2005-07-18 09:42:35 PM

But who is the guy stanging off to the right in the pic, offering no help whatsoever ?

This is who:

rbuzby		2005-07-18 09:43:27 PM

carrot

YES YES YES! This is what we eventually did, but not until the very VERY VERY last moment.

Swim sideways, or stay out of the water(where the red flags are on the beach) in the first place.

Spread the word.

Mr Mooo Mooo		2005-07-18 09:44:49 PM

2005-07-18 09:38:49 PM majorhopper [TotalFark]
Go Canada. And I thought Canadians were stupid because they thinkh Brazil and Alaska are on the same continent.

You mean they aren't on the same continent? WTF?

rbuzby		2005-07-18 09:45:06 PM

BXRWXR

Hassellhack looks like he is going to pass out from holding in his stomach.

Zylon		2005-07-18 09:46:09 PM

Damn skinink, be careful doing that! Any thread with three pictures of Hasselhoff in it summons... THE INFINITE HASSELHOFF

stickandmove		2005-07-18 09:46:50 PM

Hands across Canada?

Mississippi_Dan		2005-07-18 09:47:04 PM

I am pleased to see some people know that the correct term is Rip Current.

/Geology Nerd

Bullitt		2005-07-18 09:49:24 PM

Oddly enough, a 30-person chain also spans the entire length of Prince Edward Island itself.

Surprised you didn't know that.

Jeff_from_MD		2005-07-18 09:52:01 PM

And all you needed was that 1st guy to lose his grip and you know have 35 darwin canidates instead of 5.

remind me not to ask you to save me in the event of a riptide then,...or even open a can of peanut butter for that matter b/c the costs are way too great to be worth the effort. Nice.

bersl2		2005-07-18 09:52:44 PM

I'm not an ocean swimmer anyway. I'm farkin' pale, jellyfish are teh suck, and the sea water always irritates my nipples. Trust me, chlorine is my thing, not salt.

BXRWXR		2005-07-18 09:53:28 PM

Zylon:

Damn skinink, be careful doing that! Any thread with three pictures of Hasselhoff in it summons... THE INFINITE HASSELHOFF

Huh? I don't get it. Say "hasselhoff" one more time? Oh Crap...

ZipBeep		2005-07-18 09:56:35 PM

carrot:

Quick quiz: how many people out of 35 know that in event of riptide you merely need to swim parallel to the shore for a couple hundred feet then come in?

Why doesn't EVERYBODY know that by now?

majorhopper		2005-07-18 10:04:29 PM

Mr Mooo Mooo: You mean they aren't on the same continent? WTF?

Not since the Panama Canal.

Zylon		2005-07-18 10:08:25 PM

NNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

rob.d		2005-07-18 10:18:16 PM

BXRWXR, I was planning to hit on the wife tonight...but not now.

My eyes hurt.

Brando Jinkins		2005-07-18 10:21:09 PM

Barrel of monkeys unavailable for comment

BXRWXR		2005-07-18 10:42:12 PM

Sorry Bra, I guess the HasselTide came in a little early. Huh-huh.

markie_farkie		2005-07-18 10:42:16 PM

Did the 30 later go to PA and get hit by lightning?

borednaked		2005-07-18 10:46:37 PM

PSA: Charlotte Beach riptide is a little different. Swimming parallel to shore won't get you much unless you're an olympic athlete.

LostPharaoh		2005-07-18 10:46:44 PM

Unless the rip current takes you out in the middle of a pack of migrating sharks.

Then swim sideways while avoiding the sharks with laser beams on their snouts and then do doggy paddle on home to the shore wear big breasted life guards await to do CPR on you.

Ripside		2005-07-18 10:52:01 PM

Not to be confused with Ripside, which is me.

I idolized that Boz geek from Riptide, he had all the cool toys.

Then I started noticing the other two guys got all the babes.

I was like 10 or something. Don't blame me.

zafner		2005-07-18 10:53:38 PM

I was kiteboarding one time and "saved" this little kid on a boogie board. He spoke no English, but I could tell he was panicky as hell. When I reached him he was still drifting toward open water; I got him to hold on to me and just dragged him in to the beach. He was crying and exhausted. I never did see his parents or what happened to him later; I just grinned and waved and went back out kiteboarding.

The ocean will kick your ass.

Teucer		2005-07-18 10:56:03 PM

Funny thread. Good thing i'm not helping that with this bland yet encouraging comment.

Bad_Monkey_abc		2005-07-18 11:04:17 PM

Some folks make a case that the 'Americas' are one continent and Europe and Asia are one continent. Thus the 5 circles on the Olympic Flag for 5 continents.

//7 continent convention more widely accepted
///just sayin'

TheSpaceAdmiral		2005-07-18 11:06:49 PM

This is hot.

Sorry, I stopped reading at "four teenaged girls."

ctobio		2005-07-18 11:08:04 PM

Did someone say "Riptide?"

ClemsonChili		2005-07-18 11:08:30 PM

from a peptide chain?

Fjornir		2005-07-18 11:17:47 PM

Here's a hint to everyone: familiarize yourself with the marine environment in general and the surf zone in particular before you get into the water.

Jeff_from_MD remind me not to ask you to save me in the event of a riptide then... Jeff, your victim was right, sorry bud. "form a lemming chain" is not part of "Reach, Throw, Go". If I see a situation where I'm going to put my life on the line for someone else's it's not going to be in a game of human tug'o'war against the ocean and no rope. If I hit "Go" desperation on a swimmer I think I can save I'm going to find an improvised flotation device (a cooler, a pair of jeans, ...) and swim it out to them holding it in my left hand. I will then offer the device to them from my left -- which gives me better odds of being able to extracate myself and/or knock them unconcious because I am right handed. I will then get them into a modified tired swimmer tow and remove them from the rip current, swim back in through the surf zone and deposit them on the beach.

/Promised my SCUBA instructor I'd quit diving if I didn't get my rescue diver cert.

Booney Green		2005-07-18 11:23:11 PM

Thats why I always wear Water Wings in the pool or ocean. Sure, I may be 40 and people will laugh. But I'll float like so many chinese bath ducks around the polar ice cap while they drown. Whos laughing now! Huh!

FarkmeBlind		2005-07-18 11:28:51 PM

I have never yet dipped more than my shod toes in the ocean (has lived 2 mi from Oakland Bay for three years). Yet, I know how to escape a rip tide. Never mind that a fetus could save me from drowning....I still know how to escape a rip tide.

Under what large Antarctic glacially deposited rock, have the people involved been living?

/went whitewater rafting on the Deschutes for the first time this spring
//yeeeeeeeehaaaaaaa

middleoftheday		2005-07-18 11:30:17 PM

This is cool. I remember one of the scarier things I learned in college was that people are more likely to do horrid things when placed in groups. It's nice to know it works the other way, too.