Riptides on French coast: How to avoid and what to do if caught
It comes after people were warned against going into the sea on France’s Atlantic coast last weekend because of strong currents
Stay calm, save energy, and do not try to swim against the current.
These are the main things to remember if you get caught in a riptide, a French water safety federation has said.
Riptides are currents that form between the beach and a sand bank, but they can be very strong and pull people out to sea. Several people die as a result in France every year.
As summer arrives and more people flock to beaches, la Fédération française de sauvetage et de secourisme has issued some advice on how to avoid the phenomenon and reduce the risk of drowning.
Christian Poutriquet, federation vice-president, offered the tips in an interview.
How to avoid getting caught in a riptide
Mr Poutriquet’s advice includes:
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- Only go up to your knees in the water. If you go up to your shoulders, you can easily be lifted up and swept out to sea, especially if you’re not a strong swimmer.
- Tell someone where you are going before you go into the water, and ask them to keep an eye on you
- Stay within designated swimming areas between beach flags, and where a lifeguard is present
"Whether you're on the beach or in a boat, or even in the mountains, you always let those close to you know what route you're going to take," said Mr Poutriquet.
You can often see riptides in the sea before you enter the water.
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They sometimes appear like calm pools in the sea or have different wave patterns from the rest of the water. The surface water may appear smoother than its surrounding waves, and the water may also come up further onto the beach than the usual, calm lapping on the shore of other waves.
What to do if you get caught in a riptide (or see someone else in one)
If you find yourself caught in a riptide and feel yourself getting pulled away, stay calm.
- Save your energy, and do not fight against the current
- Swim diagonally, parallel to the coast to exit the riptide, rather than trying to go back towards the beach or back the way you have come
- Let yourself be carried by the current and swim out of it rather than against it
- If you can, wave to someone on the beach to alert them that you are struggling
If you see someone else is caught in a riptide, call 112 (emergency number). The word for riptide in French is une baïne (pronounced bah-een).
If you see any surfers, boats, or kayakers, you can call out or signal to them, but do not send anyone into the sea, which could cause an additional incident, said Mr Poutriquet.
The video below, from the Observatoire de la côte de Nouvelle-Aquitaine, shows how riptides form and offers advice on how to avoid them (in French).
Riptide risk
It comes after a British person - a man in his early twenties - died recently due to a riptide in southwest France.
Read more: British man drowns after being caught in riptide in south-west France
People were strongly advised to avoid swimming in the sea on Sunday (July 2) and Monday (July 3) in the departments of Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Landes, Gironde, and Charente-Maritime, due to the risk of riptides.
