Rip currents cause multiple drownings as summer beach season heats up

With many people soaking up the sun at beaches this summer, recent drownings have been raising awareness about the best practices when encountering a rip current – also widely known as a riptide.

Malcolm-Jamal Warner, best known for his portrayal of Theo Huxtable on “The Cosby Show,” was on a family vacation in Costa Rica when he tragically passed away.

Currents pulled Warner, 54, into the waters on July 20. People jumped in to rescue him, yet first responders were unable to revive him, Fox News Digital previously reported. 

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Last week, a decorated former police officer and ex-Baltimore Orioles minor league player tragically drowned in an attempt to save a family in Pawleys Island, South Carolina.

Chase Childers heroically dove into the water after witnessing four people struggling. Childers was swept away due to the rip current, resulting in his death, Fox News Digital reported.

Supervisory Border Patrol Agent Eric Cespedes drowned on July 11 while visiting South Padre Island, Texas. He was rescuing his children from a current but then was pulled under the water himself, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

There have already been 36 deaths reported so far this year, according to the National Weather Service. 

Chris Brewster of the United States Lifesaving Association told Fox News Digital that every year there are reports of citizen rescuers who try to help those struggling in rip currents and do not survive. 

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“We don’t recommend that people try to rescue others, partly for this reason, but we do recommend that if people try to rescue others, they always take a floatation device, like a body board, life jacket, or anything that floats,” Brewster said.

Brewster said that while many say “riptides,” the correct terminology is rip currents — as these are not caused by tides. 

“Rip currents occur at any beach where there is surf. What happens is that the surf pushes water up the slope of the beach. Gravity pulls it back,” said Brewster. 

“It can concentrate in some cases and cause these concentrated currents of water moving away from the beach.”

Brewster co-authored a peer-reviewed study estimating rip current rescues and drowning in the U.S. published in Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences.

Rip currents were found to cause 81.9% of rescues on surf beaches. It’s possible that more than 100 fatal drownings per year occur due to them.

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Greg Dusek, NOAA’s National Ocean Service senior scientist, told Fox News Digital they typically form at low spots or breaks in sandbars as well as near structures such as jetties and piers.

“Rips can be identified by narrow gaps of darker, seemingly calmer water between areas of breaking waves and whitewater, choppy water, differences in watercolor, and a line of foam, seaweed or debris moving seaward,” said Dusek.

Brewster said most people are not aware of rip currents while in the water.

“They notice that they’re further away from the beach than they thought they were, then typically they try to swim back toward the shore and realize they’re making no progress,” said Brewster.

This then “causes panic and that leads them to expend a lot of energy,” he said. That’s what “results in the drowning ultimately,” he said. 

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Stewart Leonard, grocery store chain president, lost his own toddler son in a swimming pool drowning incident back in 1989, inspiring him to open the Stewie the Duck Swim School – teaching children how to swim. 

“The key is to stay calm, conserve energy and swim parallel to the shore until you’re out of the current, then head in at an angle,” Leonard told Fox News Digital.

Said Brewster, “The big picture is that once you realize this is going on, don’t fight the current, because you won’t win. Relax, float, and then try to swim out of the rip.”

There are about 4,500 fatal unintentional drownings each year, with fifty percent of fatal drownings of those over the age of 15 occurring in oceans, lakes and rivers, according to the CDC.

Brewster advises beachgoers to swim near a lifeguard, not away from them.

Leonard shared that parents should be conscious of their children while at the beach.

“Just like having a designated driver when you drink, have a designated watcher when kids are swimming and put your phone down so you aren’t distracted while the kids are in the water,” said Leonard.