<div class="block">A day at the beach means fun in the sun but there are also safety precautions to consider.</div>

beWell

Be Well: How to Stay Safe During A Beach Trip

Shannon. There's nothing quite like a beautiful day at the beach, but there's actually a lot of different safety things that you need to consider. And I'm not just talking about the SPF in your sunscreen. Ok. So you guys have jet skis and drones. Why, you know, we're really enhancing our operation here in the New York State Park system in the last several years. We've got incorporated, our lifeguard drone team. We've got several FAA certified drone operators. Now as we call our eyes in the sky, they're able to put the drones up and they could look for dangerous marine life. And it's incredible what you could see looking down 25 50 75 ft from the sky straight into the water. So that's how you would spot a shark. If we think we were to see a shark, we put the drone up. We confirm and if it's questionable or if we confirm that there is, we'll shut the beach down for safety. Ok. And now what about the jet ski this year? In 2023? We've got even more tools in the toolbox. We've got our rescue watercraft, which is essentially a jet ski. We're using it for a multi faceted reasons. And of course, our shark protocol is one of them in the event that we closed. The be down for a shark sighting. We'll put the rescue watercraft out, we'll patrol the area, we'll even use it if necessary to help, kind of break up the bunker and hopefully push them out to sea. But it's a great tool. And a lot of lifeguard agencies all across the country are using rescue watercraft for a variety of different reasons. Not just to enhance out where our Long Island State Park shark protocol. All right, if I'm sitting here, I look out to the water and I think I see a fin or, you know, maybe I think I see a shark, right? What do I do? So, the best thing you should do is report it to the lifeguards. We do have a ton of dolphins here that swim by every day, just this morning. A huge pot swam like 50 ft off of the shore. So if you think you see a fin, you should notify the lifeguards, but a lot of this really has to do with public education. There is a difference between what a dorsal fin of a shark looks like versus the dorsal fin of a dolphin. And our lifeguards are being trained even more so in terms of fin recognition. But if you see something, just say something. So someone is having a beautiful day at the beach. But as they're taking a look, somebody's in trouble. What's the first thing to do? So, from the perspective of a parent or the person that's actually in trouble, I would say, always keep your eye on the lifeguards. The lifeguards are there. We have one job and that's to protect anybody that's out there. The first thing to do is just, you can notify a lifeguard by putting your hand up, waving your hand, you can say help. All right. So the flags are up for a reason. I see a yellow flag right here. So people need to also pay attention to their surroundings. Right? When you come to the beach, especially here at Jones Beach, the flags indicate where you can swim and where you can swim in between. The green flags are swimming. It's safe for swimming where our guards are here watching that water. If you see the red flags, you don't want to be on the outside of the red flags. It doesn't mean it's extremely dangerous. It just means that our lifeguards are manning the water between the green flags. The yellow flag actually indicates boogie boarding. All right, let's talk about rip currents. You know, there are some days where you just feel like the ocean is trying to pull you in. The most important thing is not to panic. You tell the public, you know, again, the lifeguards are their stands often because we sit higher in the lifeguard stands. We can see the rip currents better than somebody that's standing, you know, on the ocean. But if you do find yourself that you are in a rip, number one, don't panic, it's hard. But you just have to say to yourself don't panic. Basically what it is. It's a fast moving lazy river if you will. What happens is a lot of water comes over the bar, the sand bar that's behind us. It has to go somewhere. It hits the beach, the beach stops the water. So the water automatically then bounces back, wanting to go back south. So that fast motion is, is the actual for lack of a better term rip. So the best thing you can do again, we're watching you. So generally we're going to catch you before you even go into a rip. But if not, best thing to do is swim parallel to shore, which is left or right. A rip is going to pull you out south out further out to the waters. Even if that happens, you can just even float and let yourself float. Eventually the rip is going to stop. But that's not really even, we're not even let you get to that point because we're going to be right on you pretty quickly. Now, if you see somebody in trouble, I think at least for me, my natural instinct is I want to go in the water and help them, but then I might be a second person that you now have to worry about. We generally don't advise that because again, we are highly skilled, highly trained lifeguards here in the core, our job is to be on you before you're even in trouble. Do you have any incidents of issues with kids digging holes and people getting hurt? We've had a couple throughout the years where Children are taking their shovels. It's fun. It's intuitive of them. They want to dig a hole. Mom and dad want the kids to stay near them. So it's what a fun way to dig a hole, busy for a while, but actually, that's quite dangerous. We have vehicles here. We have lifeguards running and making rescues. They could trip in a hole and then potentially if the hole is too deep, the sand can collapse. And the umbrella Shannon is one more thing to consider. You want to make sure that the bottom is properly secured in the sand. Obviously, a lot of those bottoms are very pointy and if a gust of wind comes by, you want to make sure that you're safe and so is everyone around you.