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This is a video of a simulated aquatic first aid rescue...
...of practice of lifeguards in the Atlantic Ocean.
With a sea marked as dangerous.
That means, marked with a red flag that prohibits bathing to people on the beach.
The lifeguards take advantage of these days to practice.
As we see here, the situation develops close to a jetty or breakwater.
And these rescuers take charge of saving the victim that approached too close to the jetty and had asked for help.
There are two people, one on each side of the victim, holding her.
A third person, a girl, tries to arrive swimming with the floating device.
The force of the water is so much that in this case, the exercise cannot be fully completed...
... and the girl that had to get closer from shore with the floating device cannot arrive.
The important thing in this case is keeping the victim far from the jetty or breakwater.
And also keeping the lifeguard himself away from it.
This is really the most important priority, since it is always better that there is only one victim rather than two or more.
In case of not being able to return because the waves make the return difficult, or push you towards the rocks of the jetty...
The recommendable thing to do is overcome the break, on the side that faces the sea...
...and go around it so that the waves drag us towards the coast without danger.
In any case, it is important to have in mind self-protection...
...which is the first of the rules of rescue in all areas.
For that reason we have to be very clear about this in case of having to make a rescue of this type...
(or even see ourselves as the victim of the situation)
...of the direction that the waves head.
Waves that drag us towards the coast, or even out ot sea...
... are not the same as those that corner us as we see in the image.
The rescuer has to be clear about this, and know when he/she will have to get past the jetty through the deep part...
...before risking crashing against the rocks.
Even though they may not be very sharp, they can still cause injuries.
For that reason, the best thing is to go safely and swim away from the jetty...
... and return to the coast in the most efficient way.
This means with the current and not against the undertow.
As we can see, swimming in the sea is so complicated that this is not at all easy even for expert swimmers.
Nor people instructed in water rescues and lifeguarding.
Even though the well-known "rip currents" don't exist...
...since a current never follows the direction against the coast...
...and also should lead a movement of continuous and permanent convection.
The fact is that rip currents, known also as "return currents" or simply "rips"...
Are a problem, or can be a problem in many cases.
In this video, we don't observe a rip current itself...
...even though you can see it, for example in this moment, as the rescuers move backwards even though they intend to move forward.
And this is due to the normal effect that occurs in the creation of a wave.
The rip current is something even more dangerous.
It manifests itself with a similar effect, but more continuous and over a larger area...
...due to the water channeling, because the sand wore down in a certain way...
...that formed a place in which, after the wave breaks along the coast...
...a reflux is generated, that moves through that channel, out to sea.
This reflux is not very long and at a given moment it dissipates.
For that reason, if we fall into one of these currents, we must never fight against them...
...(because we will lose strength for nothing, without any result)...
...we will have to come out diagonally, parallel to the coast.
Swimming not against its force, but rather diagonally, transversely to it.
If we cannot do so, we must wait until the forcé of the current dissipates...
...and then return to the coast diagonally, to avoid falling into the course again.