Undertow Water Safety
Today, I read an article in the local newspaper about a young boy and his step grandfather who died tragically in Lake Ontario.
As an older person from another generation I too have lived along the shores of Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River since I was born with the exception of a 10 year span.
As a young person I lived in a place called Burlington on the Canadian side of Lake Ontario.
During my youth it was not uncommon for young people under the age of 12 to go to a place called the Second Tower (named after the second tower of hydro lines spanning the border of the lake). A group of my friends and I would treck quite some miles on a hot day to go to the beach and swim under the tower as we called it then.
My parents were not aware of the word "undertow" let alone the meaning of it. This is an amazing fact as my Mother's father was a police officer and was quite aware of death and the goings on of life in her community growing up. But none the less the word "undertow" never came up and we would go to the beach during the summer and it was a great place to spend the day. We were always well behaved and always unsupervised. The water along the lake was choppy and full of seawed from time to time but spending a day in the sand and cold water of the lake was par for the course at that age.
Then one day my friend's father mentioned to watch out for the "undertow". We all said yes and off we went. I didn't remember seeing an "undertow" or knowing what it was or who it was. It was just a word to be watchful of. Nobody actually explained it but we knew it could get us down at the Second Tower.
I use to have an older brother who prided himself in knowing everthing in the universe as he was in every sense of the word a pioneer in his own time in realtion to outer space. When the subject of the undertow came up he had a lengthy description of just what it was. We of course thought he was a blue bean short of the pot and forgot about what Mr. Google was even trying to say.
We played at the Second Tower and still no "undertow" ever got us. Later in life I realized that the undertow was a spinning of water that was buried below the surface and could wash someone back out to the lake faster than a jack rabbit.
To look at the water rolling into the shore one thinks that this is calm and reaching it's destination without furver but about 4 to 6 feet off the shoreline there is an underwater turbulance that catches the individual adult and child alike and quickly takes you back to the lake without warning. Fight it if you will and you drown. There is apparently a way to deal with being caught up in the "undertow", but that is for a professional to handle.
My message it to tell those who read this that there is such a thing called the "undertow" created by the turbulance of the water and it will take an unsuspecting good or bad swimmer along with it when it reverses from the shoreline.
All beaches along all the great lakes system in Canada and the United States should belong to and monitored by an organization called "Blue Flag" which on an annual basis has to approve of your beach in order to obtain this degree of safety. This is for the protection of not only eco friendly conservation but for the conditions of the water and beach safety. As we here in Canada have a large number of European Tourists come and visit our beaches we should be more compelled to cover such topics of annual safety checks on the beaches.
Through the use of Blue Flag there are thousands of beaches in the world who are approved annually for beach safety. I feel that this would not only help tourism but most importantly save lives here in Canada and the United States of America.
Another point I wish to make here is about global conditions changing all the time also creates new and unknown local conditions that we are not aware of and through Blue Flag and learning about what is happening in beaches all over the world we will be able to recognize any immediate changes here in our own Country. As the United States also borders on the great lakes they would benefit form this organization also.
Keeping in mind that the great lakes are in directly connected to the Atlantic Ocean and they are not an inland lake where cottagers go to vacation. The Great Lakes are used by vessels carrying cargo from around the world. The great lakes are a world travelling route and always keep in mind they are the receipient of movements from the Atlantic Ocean. For those of you who have lived or vacation by the Ocean you will know what a treacherous and deadly experience just looking at the ocean rolling into a rocky coastline can be. I know I once visited the site of a plane crash off Peggy's Cove and I was amazed at the force of the ocean and it's cruel and beckoning call to nature's return to the deepth.
So in summation beware and make your family, friends and strangers beware of the deadly advantage of the "undertow".