AIBU to think that we need more education about the sea?

[LyndaNotLinda]

Six people dead in 24 hours around the British coast. Many more injured. Lots of RNLI staff risking their lives to save people who have taken insane risks.

I live on the coast and a number of people on our beaches get into serious trouble every summer and that isn't even with a storm thrown into the mix. Once you add that in, the risks to holidaymakers are enormous.

Do we need government warning to tell people that it isn't safe to go in or near the water in high winds? It just seems that people were taken totally unawares by the power of the sea :(

I was amazed recently when in Weymouth how many people were letting toddlers paddle into the sea alone while they sat higher up the beach. Maybe I am ott but I wouldn't trust a pre school child in the sea alone.

I know some weren't swimming but the ones who were in the water with the wind speeds we had was just crazy.

How much education is needed? Also, there are already signs/notices/warnings everywhere in every coastal resort

I'm a trained lifeguard and a fairly good surfer I don't live in Newquay but on the Lizard peninsula There are tourists who just totally ignore all warnings, then others have to risk their lives to rescue them.
Grrrrrrrrr and of course we have threads on here stating Cornwall is a shit hole.

People can be very lacking in sense when it comes to water. I wish they had the sense to listen to advise given by the coast guards, I find it unbelievable that someone will see signs saying "don't swim" yet think they no better. You wouldn't or you would like to think people wouldn't light a match in a petrol station so why swim in a red flag area.

I also really don't want to victim blame any death is tragic, and to be fair I haven't clicked on your link (have a few nightmare with clicking on links) or seen the news for a few days but people seem to not respect the sea at all, and as a consequence people often volunteers put their lives at risk to save these people.

I grew up by the sea and come from a long line of coast guards or members of the Royal Navy, so maybe I've been given enough lectures about respecting water, but my great aunt lost 6 of her 7 sons saving people who did not listen to the coast guards advise on the Goodwin sands, they are actually remembered in the Deal/Dover maratime museum, so sadly I don't think it will ever change

I think more education is needed - I only recently learned about rip tides (from a Facebook post of all things). I also do think that sadly some of it is down to lack of common sense. Some of the articles had pictures of the sea from that day - no way in hell would most people have looked at them and decided to go for a paddle or a wander on the rocks!

Feed I was the same. Yellow flag days we went in. I refuse to swim in the sea now as I was standing in water to just below my knees when a wave hit me. 'Something' happened and I was being pulled along the coast, not out to sea but along it. I kept swimming to reach the floating ropes and eventually managed to stand up. No-one told us about the rip tides. We watched 4 people being pulled out the sea over the 2 weeks we were there.

I think it needs to be in the tourist information guides. There aren't signs here - other than remember that the area outside the flags is not watched by lifeguards. No other signage at all reminding people about rip tides and spring tides and heavy seas. And I live in a surfing area so we do get some big waves.

I know that we all need/want to attract tourists. But I think there needs to be a big 'Respect the water' page at the start of 'look at our beautiful beaches' section in the tourist guides.

Because, clearly, whatever is currently being done isn't enough. The RNLI is entirely funded by donations. Where is the central government funding? Where are the county councils with tourist coastlines getting together to warn people?

I know that some people willfully ignore the warnings. But it's not generally people with little children.

Do people know what the different coloured flags mean? I'm not convinced they do

I'm not sure. I've seen some spectacular acts of idiocy around water from people with small children.

There could be more information but even with that it's going to involve a lot of personal responsibility and recognition that water is dangerous from people themselves.

Every time there is a high spring tide near us, people seem to congregate as close as possible to the waves to take pictures and let their children play in the waves. Mostly locals. No one seems to care about the risk of getting swept away or the pebbles that can get thrown up by the waves. It's a miracle that no one as been badly hurt, yet.

There was no way I was going in that sea yesterday or Friday. I've lived here all my life and seen stupid things, have warned people and been told to fuck off.
A couple of weeks ago someone left a pile of clothes on the beach here as if they were going skinny dipping. Tide came in and a local saw the clothes and raised the alarm. Lifeboat went out couldn't find them and eventually the police were called out to a nude man strolling a couple of miles up the beach. Of course very drunk! !

esmesbees As I understand it (my French is a bit ropy) the person filming is in their 80s, had made sure someone had summoned help, and was sensible enough to know that if they went into the water they would be another body to recover.
It's important to know your limits. People die every year going into water to save others (often dogs, who are then fine).

Back in the 70's there were some truly disturbing public information films shown to children. We need national coverage for sea/ coast awareness.
I live in a seaside town in the North West. Every summer visitors need to be rescued from the sea/ the sandbanks .

Part of a lifeboat crew and people seem to ignore the warnings. Don't check the tides. They go in after their dogs. And many more things. But the people who need to be reached seem to ignore.

Why do we need all these signs and nannying? FFS, is it really not obvious that the sea can be/is dangerous and you can drown in it or get hypothermia and die?

I think if you've got eyes in your head and you can see that the sea is kicking up sh*t you'd have to be stupid and knowingly reckless to go on nearby rocks, nearby sea walls or in the sea, especially with children - there's no education required for that, it's just basic observation and common sense.

Having said that, myself and my DD were at Fistral beach in mid July for the first time body board (great fun!!). I could see that we had to stay between the two beach flags so we did manage that however I have to say, there was no way of knowing before entering the water that there was a massive right to left (or left to right, depending if you're facing the sea or not!!) rip current so you had to constantly keep moving yourself back and back and back because it was washing you in one direction the whole time (and VERY strongly - it was a proper ripping current). Now this was recognisable to me because I used to work on boats so I understand about currents and could feel it and know what it was, but honestly, you really might not recognise it at all - certainly there was no information on the beach to say 'there's a strong current which will constantly try and push you outside of the designated safety area designated by the beach flags. Please keep checking back to shore to see if you've gone outside of the designated flagged area as this is not safe'. So personally I think a little bit more explanation would probably be quite helpful.

However, having also worked with clientele (from the US largely) on and in the water, people can be incredibly stupid and completely ignore what you tell them anyway. Very helpful and life saving advice was given to them all the time and they just totally flouted it - and often then needed help, rescue or first aid (if not all three). It was the same on Fistral beach - the lifeguards were on their megaphones ALL DAY LONG shouting "move back between the flags" endlessly and repeatedly to people who just weren't listening.

We were SW last week and the number of people (kids mainly) going into the sea when it was on the way back out, and walking through the sticky mud to do so was unreal.

I've grown up going to this beach, and been on the beach as child and adult when rescues were taking place. I have a healthy respect for the power of the sea and I'm always shocked at how little other people seem to know.

I'll only let DD in when the tide is fully in, the wind is low and the beach wardens have green flagged - and even then she's not allowed inflatables, or to go further than her chest (and she swims for county). I know how unpredictable the Bristol Channel can be.

Yes to more warnings and training. Adverts are needed, especially ones aimed at kids TV channels. If we educate the kids the knowledge can be passed down.

lovelyupnorth - thank you for what you do.

My grandfather was a lifeboat coxswain...............

www.cornwall-beaches.co.uk/beach-safety

All Cornwall beach safety here

Lifeguard info here
www.cornwall-beaches.co.uk/lifeguards

I live very close to where one of the recent incidents happened. What has not been widely reported is the Red Flag was flying at the time. I was taught from an early age what the flags meant and to be honest red has always meant danger to me, even if I wasn't sure, if there was a red flag flying I'd take steps to find out what it was for.

We locals often go wave chasing, but we know the safe places to stand ie behind a break water, some of the local RNLI are there too and I always trust their opinion. However when the Birmingham Navy are in town, all common sense seems to fly out of the window. They stand on the sea front as the waves crash over them, not realising that rocks and stones are being thrown up. FFS this is the water that breaks down stone walls in the winter storms, just because it's August doesn't make it any less dangerous.
We need more education in schools, we need to make sure people know how to contact the Coastguard in an emergency (you'd be surprised how few people know to call 999) but ultimately we need people to keep switched on when on holiday at the seaside. I'm sure somepeople forget to pack their brains.

We went to the beach a few weeks ago. DD(3) wanted to paddle, so I stood between her and the water, held onto her and only let her go far enough for the water to cover her feet. I was aware that I could feel sand shifting under my feet and that occasionally a bigger wave than expected came along. (We were on a safe part of the beach and the water wasn't rough.)

I was horrified to see other children DD's age allowed to play in the water unsupervised, with their parents at the top of the beach (the tide was in, so only a few metres away, but still to far imo). And then later we saw people swimming really far out and nowhere near the designated swimming area with lifeguards.

And never never never never go into water to rescue your dog. I think it was 1 owner and 3 police who tried to rescue that dog at Blackpool. The dog got itself out at the end.

I grew up in Cornwall and am a confident surfer/swimmer the amount of times I've had to pull a small child or even adults at times onto my board and take them back to shore is ridiculous. I personally think that some people are in "holiday mode" and seem to think that the rules don't apply to them.