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Ryan Mallett

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SWFLHurricane said:
I lived in Destin (Holiday Isle) from 1988-1991. The Currents can be brutal there. You HAVE to learn how to swim parallel to the beach to avoid these terrible situations.
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Currents are DEADLY, ain’t a **** joke. OB almost got me a few years back. People can vastly underestimate the ocean’s power. RIP Mallett, gone way too soon
 
SWFLHurricane said:
I lived in Destin (Holiday Isle) from 1988-1991. The Currents can be brutal there. You HAVE to learn how to swim parallel to the beach to avoid these terrible situations.
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I was just reading an article about how there have been multiple drownings each day recently in the Panama City Beach area. Apparently the currents you mentioned have been extra strong recently.
 
Tad Footeball said:
I was just reading an article about how there have been multiple drownings each day recently in the Panama City Beach area. Apparently the currents you mentioned have been extra strong recently.
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7 drownings this week (before this). Saw pic of the beaches being reformed from the crazy currents. No swimming allowed in PC. Not sure in Destin. Sad
 
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L A M P said:
7 drownings this week (before this). Saw pic of the beaches being reformed from the crazy currents. No swimming allowed in PC. Not sure in Destin. Sad
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It depends on the day as well as swell direction and fetch of wind etc - I have pulled out/helped countless number of people over the years out surfing the "big" surf in Destin. And just think that most of those days (big waves in Destin) in Hawaii we (I and most everyone I would go surf with) would not go surf because it was too small. It is all relative, but the shorebreaks in the panhandle create some serious washouts and rips and if you do not know what you are doing and not a strong swimmer and not using fins or boards then it get serious as the last week has demonstrated.
 
When my sons got interested in surfing - before they started, I took them out to the beach in Destin a few days and showed them how to spot the undertow - and USE it to help them get out past the break.

Told them before they surf - they need to sit and study the beach for a few minutes. Find the better breaks. Note the undertow, and of course if they lost their board - to never fight the undertow - swim to the right or left to leave the "trough," - and THEN make your way back in.

We lose folks here every Summer. Sometimes kids, too often parents, and others who have no idea of what's UNDER the surface, and then try to swim against it - thinking the shortest distance is straight between two points.

I'm not in charge, but every tourist prior to checking in - should be required to watch a two or three minute video to show them the dangers, how to spot the undertow, how it works, and how to calmly swim out of it.

And if they're color blind. Red flags are bad. Double red flags are worser. No no's.

Unless the family is in the mood for a funeral.

What a waste.
 
Loveable guy. Very well respected wherever he went. Became the HC for White Hall HS in AR.

Just sad. RIP
 
This is what I do for a living. I'm one of the guys that makes the call to close the water up here in panhandle.

Our sugar sand creates people eating rips with 2 ft faced waves, straight onshore winds and sunny skies after a storm stretch...We had 2 last week.

Textbook. Second one- Dad trying help son. Dad ain't done a lick of cardio in 20....son flips out 150 feet from shore, not 150 yards. 150 feet. Watched our guys work the code from Beach cam.

People .....I am frustrated with people right now, but will tell you 85% of them comply w dbl reds.

It's the normalcy bias for outliers on vacay...we literally have dashcam footage of bystanders walking around a code scene to enter the rip we just pulled a victim from while we are packing for ALS. ITS ******* MINDBLOWING

We back down to single and they go ******* wild and start dying. Then we have to go back to dbl with ankle biters bc the rips are still pulling and people have zero base knowledge and/or outright defiance despilte our best efforts to educate before we resuscitate...
 
Pic of the rip tides. Not waters you want to be in.
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surfcane said:
It depends on the day as well as swell direction and fetch of wind etc - I have pulled out/helped countless number of people over the years out surfing the "big" surf in Destin. And just think that most of those days (big waves in Destin) in Hawaii we (I and most everyone I would go surf with) would not go surf because it was too small. It is all relative, but the shorebreaks in the panhandle create some serious washouts and rips and if you do not know what you are doing and not a strong swimmer and not using fins or boards then it get serious as the last week has demonstrated.
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Isn't the most important thing, other than not going out if you’re inexperienced, to not try to “swim your way out of it“. I got caught in a current one time in a narrow channel between two islands and I just let it take me while I caught my breath, and just relaxed until I got my bearings.

It seems to me like what happens a lot is people all of a sudden start getting pulled, and panic, and then they start to swim hard, and after a while, your breath and muscles give out. Better to be picked up by a boat or someone on a paddle, half a mile out, than to wear yourself out and drown.
 
harphong said:
This is what I do for a living. I'm one of the guys that makes the call to close the water up here in panhandle.

Our sugar sand creates people eating rips with 2 ft faced waves, straight onshore winds and sunny skies after a storm stretch...We had 2 last week.

Textbook. Second one- Dad trying help son. Dad ain't done a lick of cardio in 20....son flips out 150 feet from shore, not 150 yards. 150 feet. Watched our guys work the code from Beach cam.

People .....I am frustrated with people right now, but will tell you 85% of them comply w dbl reds.

It's the normalcy bias for outliers on vacay...we literally have dashcam footage of bystanders walking around a code scene to enter the rip we just pulled a victim from while we are packing for ALS. ITS ******* MINDBLOWING

We back down to single and they go ******* wild and start dying. Then we have to go back to dbl with ankle biters bc the rips are still pulling and people have zero base knowledge and/or outright defiance despilte our best efforts to educate before we resuscitate...
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I’ll be on Santa Rosa Beach for 3 days starting Friday and trust me I am not too big of a man to give that water the respect it deserves. Like you said, the past week or two has been absolutely deadly. Probably a dozen or more dead and well over 100 rescues in the panhandle just in the last week.
 
OriginalCanesCanesCanes said:
Isn't the most important thing, other than not going out if you’re inexperienced, to not try to “swim your way out of it“. I got caught in a current one time in a narrow channel between two islands and I just let it take me while I caught my breath, and just relaxed until I got my bearings.

It seems to me like what happens a lot is people all of a sudden start getting pulled, and panic, and then they start to swim hard, and after a while, your breath and muscles give out. Better to be picked up by a boat or someone on a paddle, half a mile out, than to wear yourself out and drown.
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This is just me, but the longest rip current rushing OUT to sea only lasted 150 yards - maybe 200 at the most.

It's just that it seems to scare them, they don't know what to do, they panic, swim directly toward shore which is useless, wear out, and drown - or cause someone else to assist, wear out, and THEY drown. I can't tell you how many surfers have had to grab them and get them back in.
 
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