In Florida we have a flag system to indicate beach conditions. Only recently, local authorities finally gave the Beach Patrol the power to ticket anyone violating a double-red warning.

If beach conditions are deemed to be too dangerous, either because of rip tides, strong surf, or marine life (read sharks), double-red flags are hoisted, and the water is off limits.

Understandably, DR flags fly prior to, during and immediately after a hurricane or tropical storm. It is hard to explain just how powerful rip tides are and how deceptively fast you can be dragged out into open water, sometimes miles from shore.

Regardless of how strong a swimmer you are, you can become a drowning victim within minutes.

Here is the portion of this post where I rant…

I don’t give a rat’s ass how far you traveled to vacation at the beach. I don’t give a rat’s ass how long you’ve lived at the beach and that you’ve swam in stronger tides when you were a kid.

Your right to enjoy the water ends when you put someone else’s life at risk to pull your sorry ass out of that water. Once you became a potential victim it is the obligation of the Beach Patrol to make heroic efforts to save you, at risk to their own life and the lives of their fellow patrol members ~ just because you chose to disregard the law or that no one was going to tell you, you couldn’t go for a swim.

Waves churning up the beach so bad that a good three-foot moat had been eroded, creating the ideal conditions for a killer rip tide, and this idiot just had to get out into the Ike-induced surf. She was headed further out into the waves when the Beach Patrol found her. I hope this b’otch got a ticket.