Photo: iStockphoto
The drowning death of actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner, best known for his role as Theo Huxtable on The Cosby Show, has called attention to water safety, particularly when facing rip currents, per Fox Digital.
Warner, 54, died on Sunday (July 20) after being pulled into the ocean by a rip current during a family vacation in Costa Rica. Bystanders dove into the water to help Warner and his eight-year-old daughter, but they were unable to revive the actor.
According to the National Weather Service, 36 deaths related to rip currents have been reported this year. Experts are urging beachgoers to follow rip current safety amid peak summer attendance.
Chris Brewster of the U.S. Lifesaving Association called attention to the risk of bystanders attempting to rescue others caught in these dangerous currents.
“We don’t recommend that people try to rescue others, partly for this reason,” Brewster said. “But we do recommend that if people try to rescue others, they always take a flotation device, like a body board, life jacket, or anything that floats.”
Brewster also emphasized the danger of rip currents.
“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,” Brewster said. “It can concentrate in some cases and cause these concentrated currents of water moving away from the beach.”
Greg Dusek, a senior scientist at NOAA’s National Ocean Service, said it's important to know how to recognize rip currents.
“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," Dusek said.
Brewster noted that most swimmers don’t recognize they’re in danger until it’s too late.
“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,” he explained. “This then causes panic, and that leads them to expend a lot of energy. That's what results in the drowning ultimately.”
Stew Leonard, the founder of Stewie the Duck Swim School, said the key in these situations "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.”
“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," Brewster said.
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