I just saw that he drowned at a beach in Destin.
The gulf has been having serious rips for years, they developed a flag system to warn people-red is dangerous rip currents present, double red is stay the fuck out of that water. I don’t know what the flag was today in destin but when Peyton Hillis rescued his kids in Pensacola a couple of months ago and subsequently almost drowned himself it was on a double red flag day. Really really sad that the messaging with the flags is seemingly not getting through and so many are losing their lives
Rip currents are the worst. You think you are having fun in the water and then gone. This hits close to home for me as my brother got caught in one when he was about 6 and I was 10, I tried to save him and the next thing you know we are both 50'+' out to sea after being in waist deep water. Random strangers spotted us and saved us and they had to swim us in a good 20' before the lifeguards even spotted us. This was decades ago but one of those things I'll never forget.The gulf has been having serious rips for years, they developed a flag system to warn people-red is dangerous rip currents present, double red is stay the fuck out of that water. I don’t know what the flag was today in destin but when Peyton Hillis rescued his kids in Pensacola a couple of months ago and subsequently almost drowned himself it was on a double red flag day. Really really sad that the messaging with the flags is seemingly not getting through and so many are losing their lives
I cannot imagine being that young and having that happen. I’ve felt the pull a few times and it has made me beyond wary of the gulf, I still go to the beach but I do my swimming in pools now.
I think it worked to our advantage being that young and not realizing how much trouble we actually were in so we never really panicked. I remember starting to struggle a bit as we were being brought back in by the people that saved us but it wasn't until the lifeguard finally blew the whistle that I realized how we had been in a bad situation, we just thought the waves were really strong at the time. If that happened to me now I'd be dead, I could swim back then and was 100+lbs lighter.
I got caught in a mild one when I was in high school and it scared the shit out of me. Getting caught in a bad one knowing there are sharks everywhere around you has to be even worse. Panic instinct becomes too much. No idea how good of a swimmer Mallett was though.
Very sorry for your loss, j-man.
My brother-in-law was trying to find a beach for his birthday the day before, and it was double reds everywhere along Destin, so he didn't go; what an absolute tragedy for ryan's family.The gulf has been having serious rips for years, they developed a flag system to warn people-red is dangerous rip currents present, double red is stay the fuck out of that water. I don’t know what the flag was today in destin but when Peyton Hillis rescued his kids in Pensacola a couple of months ago and subsequently almost drowned himself it was on a double red flag day. Really really sad that the messaging with the flags is seemingly not getting through and so many are losing their lives
Did the hurricanes do something to the beaches? They did on the east coast. I’ve been to so many of the beaches from St Marks all the way across to gulf shores in Alabama and I never remember hearing about this many drownings.The gulf has been having serious rips for years, they developed a flag system to warn people-red is dangerous rip currents present, double red is stay the fuck out of that water. I don’t know what the flag was today in destin but when Peyton Hillis rescued his kids in Pensacola a couple of months ago and subsequently almost drowned himself it was on a double red flag day. Really really sad that the messaging with the flags is seemingly not getting through and so many are losing their lives
I'm really not sure. I know years ago they were dredging in Pensacola for beach renourishment and that definitely seemed to me to be a big factor but they haven't done any dredging for awhile. It just seems the Gulf is way rougher now, it used to be more often than not it was very calm, now the calm days are very much fewer and farther between, I would be very curious what the reason might be, I mean hurricanes I would think definitely shift the sand under the water but I don't think it would make the water itself rougher so long after the actual event? It stinks because I used to adore swimming in the Gulf but I really do not feel comfortable at all at the thought of doing that anymore.
One of the storms on the east coast out a U right at the high tide shore break so if you are there at low, it’s fine, let’s see if I can draw this, low look likes this where the u is lower:
Agree totally. I was rescued in a mild rip by a fellow swimmer in my late 20s. I will never go out past where the waves break again because I would not be able to get out of the current without panicking.
