Dangerous Currents

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 157, 29 March 1941, Page 13

Dangerous Currents

Sir, —As an old waterman I read: with interest and approval Mr. E. Hop • kins’ letter in your issue of March 25. I think this subject of beach currents and consequent drownings should be . thoroughly threshed out. I would like to add a few of my own observations and if others do the same helpful hints to beach bathers migbt be forthcoming. For example: On the Wanganui beach, flood (or incoming) tides set in a northerly direction and ebb tides southerly at a rate of one to two knots. When a north-west wind is added to the ebb tide the current gets severe. • There are also one to two submerged sandbars parallel with the coast -with occasional breaks or cuts through which the ebb tide runs out with great force. When carried out through such a cutting in the sandbar a strong swimmer can get in by selecting' a spot where the surf is breaking on the bar and “trudging” or “crawling” with the elbows well bent, so as to keep the breaking waves under the upper arm and armpit. Where the danger cuts are in the sandbars there is usually an absence of break in the waves. There the wishful beach fisherman is often found in the fond hope of fish finding their way within ehsy catching distance of the shore. I would like to add a few words on that much abused word “undertow.” This is very frequent on steep beaches and is particularly dangerous on an ebb tide with a heavy surf. For instance, a big wave comes breaking in and drives up "the steep beach; as it recedes this water goes under the next incoming w r ave and we get undertow. Woe betide the weak swimmer who gets caught in the undertow when the surf is heavy on a steep beach. Backwash is a milder type of the same thing. .Harbour swimmers should be particularly careful on an ocean beach, as they are .often over-confident. The spring tides at full and new moon have also to be remembered, as the tides are several feet higher and accentuate the above dangers. There are many other points which I will leave to more facile pens. I would like to impress on sprint swimmers the necessity for cultivating a good easy, long distance sustaining stroke which can be used with comfort find effect in a long struggle in a rough sea.—l am, etc., A.F.H. Wanganui, March 25.