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| Titel |
Surveying rip current survivors: preliminary insights into the experiences of being caught in rip currents |
| VerfasserIn |
D. Drozdzewski, W. Shaw, D. Dominey-Howes, R. Brander, T. Walton, A. Gero, S. Sherker, J. Goff, B. Edwick |
| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| ISSN |
1561-8633
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| Digitales Dokument |
URL |
| Erschienen |
In: Natural Hazards and Earth System Science ; 12, no. 4 ; Nr. 12, no. 4 (2012-04-26), S.1201-1211 |
| Datensatznummer |
250010713
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 copernicus.org/nhess-12-1201-2012.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
This paper begins a process of addressing a significant gap in knowledge
about people's responses to being caught in rip currents. While rip currents
are the primary hazard facing recreational ocean swimmers in Australia,
debate exists about the best advice to give swimmers caught in rip currents.
Such surf rescue advice – on what to do and how to respond when caught in a
rip – relies on empirical evidence. However, at present, knowledge about
swimmers reactions and responses to rip currents is limited. This gap is a
considerable barrier to providing effective advice to beach goers and to
understanding how this advice is utilised (or not) when actually caught in the
rip current.
This paper reports the findings of a pilot study that focussed on
garnering a better understanding of swimmers' experiences when caught in rip
currents. A large scale questionnaire survey instrument generated data about
rip current survivors' demographics, knowledge of beach safety and their
reactions and responses when caught in a rip current. A mix of online and
paper surveys produced a total of 671 completed surveys. Respondents were
predominantly an informed group in terms of rip current knowledge, beach
experience and had a high self-rated swimming ability. Preliminary insights
from the survey show that most respondents recalled a "swim across the
rip/parallel to the beach" message when caught in the rip and most escaped
unassisted by acting on this message. However, while nearly a quarter of
respondents recalled a message of "not to panic", short answer responses
revealed that the onset of panic inhibited some respondents from recalling
or enacting any other type of beach safety message when caught in the rip
current. Results also showed that despite the research sample being younger,
competent and frequent ocean swimmers, they were more likely to swim at
unpatrolled beaches and outside of the red and yellow safety flags.
Moreover, they were still caught in a rip current and they panicked. The
findings of this study have significant implications for a range of
demographic groups of differing beach safety knowledge and swimming ability
who may be caught in rip currents behave, we know very little about how
beach goers may respond to being caught in them. |
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