I am a regular but have name changed as this could be terribly outing
I'm visiting my parents at the moment, who live on the coast in The Netherlands. This afternoon a 15-year-old boy was pulled out of the sea (today is wet, windy, and the sea is still cold) but, despite serious efforts by the amazing emergency services, he sadly didn't make it.
Only a few days ago we watched one of the coastguard search helicopters patrol a section of the sea near us, whilst the air ambulance was circling waiting for space to be cleared on the beach for it to land. Luckily this one turned out to be false alarm, until today.
The North Sea and English Channel are particularly dangerous bodies of water. They are far from calm, there are plenty of strong undercurrents near the coast line, and sand banks which move so regularly that the currents also move with them.
With it being summer it will be tempting to go to the beach and go for a swim in the sea to cool down. Please please please tell your kids, and others who don't know, what the dangers are and how important it is to adhere to any signage on the beach. Please tell them that when they do decide to swim, to stay close to the coast. And if they get caught by a current, they should allow it to drag them out to sea. It will stop, and it will be easier to swim back when not swimming against the current.
When the sea is rough, the coast guard / RNLI will likely make it clear it's unsafe to swim. Today was not a safe day to swim. Today it resulted in something horrible.
Please educate your children.