Hi guys, I haven't blogged in a while. I prefer reading interesting post and get intimidated by some well written ones. I am still learning on how this works. What I like the most are the comments and feedbacks when I post.
I came accross something terrifying yesterday.
Chris, Nate and I are vacationing in Maui, South Kihei to be exact. We have been coming here for over 9 years, which for Nathaneil seems to be his entire life even though he is 12.
We are what i called a water family, we love lakes, rivers and mostly the ocean. We take pride in telling people that no matter were we go, if there is a lake or ocean we jump in.
When I say "love", it is mostly swimming in the water. We do not love it so much to be able to call ourselves connoisseurs of these massive water bodies.
Yesterday, we went to our favourites beach just past Wailea, "Polo beach". This beach is the easiest beach to swim at for everyone. No big drops, beautiful sand, wide open, boogy boarding beach.
Well my friends, the sun disappear and within minutes the waves started getting bigger. Let the fun begin, lets wave jump! We always have enjoyed wave jumping as a family, we always scream
from the top of our lungs if we go through or if we jump. After a while I was tired, everyone was, but me especially after my accident in May and if you remember my sciatic back nerve problem, I was done and ready to get out.
The ocean was not ready to let me out...I was caught in what is called a Riptide or a Rip current.
This is the definition from Wikipedia:
"A riptide is a strong, offshore current that is caused by the tide pulling water through an inlet along a barrier beach. It is a strong tidal flow of water within estuaries and other enclosed tidal areas. They become the strongest where the flow is constricted. When there is a falling or ebbing tide, the water is strongly flowing through an inlet toward the ocean, especially once stabilized by jetties.[1] During these falling and ebbing tides, a riptide can carry a person far offshore. For example, the ebbing tide at Shinnecock Inlet in Southampton New York, extends more than 300 m offshore.[2] Because of this, riptides are typically more powerful than rip currents. During slack tide, the water is motionless for a short period of time until the flooding or rising tide starts pushing the sea water landward through the inlet. Riptides also occur in constricted areas in bays and lagoons where there are no waves. These strong, reversing currents can also be termed ebb jets, flood jet, or tidal jets by coastal engineers because they carry large quantities of sand that form sand bars far out in the ocean and in the bay opposite the inlet channel. The term "ebb jet" would be used for a tidal current leaving an enclosed tidal area, and "flood jet" for the equivalent tidal current entering it.
The term "rip tide" or "riptide" is often incorrectly applied to rip currents, which are not tidal flows. A rip current is a strong, narrow jet of water that moves away from the beach and into the ocean. They can flow quickly and are not predictable and are a result of the shape of the coastline. A rip tide is caused by the moon's gravitational pull and is a predictable rise and fall of the water level."
Because I think it was a Riptide and not a Rip current, I would have ended up at shore somewhere and not in the middle of the ocean. My 1st instinct was to panic, and panicked I did. Nate was just in front of me, getting pulled out just like me. Luckily he had his boogy board to hold onto. But me...I kept trying to swim towards the beach but the ocean kept pulling me in, no matter how much strength I was putting in swiming, the ocean was stronger. My heart started beating faster and faster, my left hip was hurting, and I couldn't catch my breath. Finally saw Chris on my left and scream his name. He saw the distress and the look of worry on both Nathaneil and I faces. It took him what seemed forever to get to me, but he is a strong swimmer and knows the ocean better than me. Nate had calmed down, situated himself, told me to hold onto the board and everything will be ok, then started swimming to shore. After calming me down and directing the board, Chris and I finally made it to the beach, me out of breath and barely standing.
Well friends, this is the 1st time i can say that i love swimming everywhere, but I am going to make it my business to learn more about these massive water bodies. I do not remember being so scared not only for my life but for my son.