be careful out there | OBX Connection Message Board (2024)

Date Posted: 7/4/2024 11:31 AM

Date Posted: 7/4/2024 11:40 AM

Date Posted: 7/4/2024 11:53 AM

Date Posted: 7/4/2024 2:28 PM

I am encouraging them to sound front it and we have some nice sound front beaches around here. I just wigg out too much when it comes to my kiddos and grands they know it.

Date Posted: 7/4/2024 4:09 PM

Date Posted: 7/4/2024 4:18 PM

One of my family that is visiting has been here dozens of times over the years and they spend all day on the beach. He said today had some of the biggest waves he can remember on his visits.

Wow! I see that your beach is totally in the red flag zone, whereas Frisco and below is yellow. Not that I like that either. I know though, that you have warned them. Have a good time just watching those beautiful waves and not getting in! I love to swim, but only do it when it is pancake-y on the beach.

Date Posted: 7/4/2024 4:44 PM

Date Posted: 7/4/2024 4:59 PM

Teaching them how to swim parallel to the beach at a relaxed pace will save their lives. I'm still here after decades of riptide experience. Panic is what kills people trying to swim against a riptide.

You are so correct on that one. Just let the surf take you down the beach and then you can swim in when the rip stops. Float on your back too. I'm glad you knew what to do! Happened to my dad once while down here and he did that very thing.

Date Posted: 7/5/2024 6:49 AM

Issued by National Weather Service
Newport, NC
3:01 AM EDT Fri, Jul 5, 2024

...BEACH HAZARDS STATEMENT REMAINS IN EFFECT THROUGH THIS EVENING...

* WHAT...Dangerous rip currents.

* WHERE...All Eastern North Carolina beaches.

* WHEN...Through this evening.

* IMPACTS...Rip currents can sweep even the best swimmers away from shore into deeper water.

* ADDITIONAL DETAILS...The most likely time for strong rip currents to occur is a couple hours either side of low tide, which will occur around 1:30 PM this afternoon.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

Life-threatening rip currents. If caught in a rip current, remain calm. Swim in a direction following the shoreline. If tired, float or tread water until out of the rip current. If unable to escape, face the shore and call or wave for help.

Date Posted: 7/5/2024 9:53 AM

Teaching them how to swim parallel to the beach at a relaxed pace will save their lives. I'm still here after decades of riptide experience. Panic is what kills people trying to swim against a riptide.

Better yet, teach 'em to simply float and/or spot a rip

And, psst ( I know you know this) it's a current ;)

Yesterday coming off the beach around 6ish...I saw three swimmers maybe 100 yards out drifting/moving slowing northeast (had seen them enter the water maybe 100 yards to the south)...as I'm thinking "ok, schit, here we go" ...I'm also thinking "I've had a few co*cktails"...fortunately, a guy out riding to the north saw them and paddled over.....the swimmers latched onto that board like crazy. All ended well, but it could have easily not.

Not sure I'd say these swells are anywhere near largest but, on north hatteras, the shore break was colossal (we've lost our bar to slow/brake the swell) and punishing...yet, guests still "line up" 25 yards out to "catch it".

Date Posted: 7/5/2024 3:39 PM

Date Posted: 7/5/2024 3:47 PM

Date Posted: 7/5/2024 4:03 PM

Date Posted: 7/6/2024 11:41 AM

Winds gusting at 20 mph right now

Date Posted: 7/6/2024 2:54 PM

My kids and grandkids were at the beach all week - sunning and on the shore, ankle-deep, not IN the water. They've been here every year since before some of them were born. And a few of them have been caught in rips multiple times over the years and they KNOW how to spot them, but they can open up in seconds as we know. They never go anymore without multiple kinds of flotation devices, including life vests for the little ones which they wear at all times. The ocean is no place to learn to swim.