Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project
Dave Benjamin, Executive Director and Public Relations
Michigan Sea Grant
Elizabeth Laporte, Communication and Education Services Director
Don't panic if caught in a dangerous current
“Flip, Float, and Follow,” Michigan Sea Grant
Great Lakes, USA – The Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project (GLSRP) acknowledges and endorses the Michigan Sea Grant’s “Flip, Float, and Follow” rip current survival campaign and will be sharing Flip, Float, and Follow at its “Water Safety Surf Rescue” classes this summer starting with its St. Joseph, MI class Sunday, June 3 in coordination with the National Weather Services “National Rip Current Awareness Week.”
“It is critical to understand what it means to flip, float and follow,” said Elizabeth LaPorte, Michigan Sea Grant’s Communication and Education Services Director. “The Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project's on-the-beach educational efforts will clearly demonstrate for the public how to survive a dangerous current.”
How to use the Flip, Float, and Follow Rip Current Survival Strategy
1. Flip over onto your back.
2. Float to keep your head above water, conserve your energy, and to calm yourself down.
3. Follow the current until it weakens. Most currents dissipate quickly as they move away from the shore into deeper water. Ride it out, figure out which direction the water is flowing and swim perpendicular to the current toward shore.
“Also remember if you are too tired to swim to shore, continue floating and signal for help,” said Dave Benjamin, GLSRP executive director. “As long as you are floating you are alive. When you are fighting the current, you are drowning.”
“This new campaign and educational materials are designed to help people remember how to successfully escape a variety of dangerous currents such as rip currents, channel currents, and structural currents,” LaPorte concluded.
According to LaPorte, the Michigan Sea Grant’s “flip, float and follow” public outreach campaign is the result of input from a variety of first responders and water safety groups that participated in the Great Lakes Water Safety Conference, sponsored by Michigan Sea Grant in 2011. Sea Grant's outreach professionals developed new educational materials that clearly communicate an important message: don't panic if caught in a dangerous current.
Like “Stop, Drop, and Roll”, a simple fire safety technique taught to children, emergency services personnel, and industrial workers as a component of health and safety training to extinguish a fire on a person's clothes or hair, it is an effective psychological tool that can be focused on in order to avoid panic in a terrifying situation.
In the following ABC 57 news segment, “Saving lives this summer”, 10 year old Juliette Benjamin, shares her knowledge of Flip, Float, and follow: http://www.abc57.com/news/local/van-buren/Preventing-Summer-Drownings--155889485.html
ABOUT THE MICHIGAN SEA GRANT
Michigan Sea Grant fosters economic growth and helps protect Michigan’s coastal, Great Lakes resources through education, research and outreach. A collaborative effort of the University of Michigan and Michigan State University, Michigan Sea Grant is part of the NOAA-National Sea Grant network of 32 university-based programs.
Since 1991, the Michigan Sea Grant has led the region in efforts to better communicate key messages to the public about how to be safe at the beach. The Michigan Sea Grant has collaborated with university researchers, state government, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Weather Service and a number of organizations, including the Marquette Waterfront Safety Task Force, the Great Lakes Beach and Pier Safety Task Force and most recently, the Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project.
See Dangerous Currents - Educational Information:
The Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project, Inc. (GLSRP) is about saving lives. It is a nonprofit corporation that is a Chapter of the National Drowning Prevention Alliance (NDPA), the 2011 “Lifesaver of the Year” award winner, presenter at the NDPA’s 11th Annual Symposium, and the 2012 winner of the “Outstanding Service to the Great Lakes Community” award presented by the Dairyland Surf Classic, Sheboygan, WI. The GLSRP tracks drowning statistics, teaches “Water Safety Surf Rescue” classes, and leads the “Third Coast Ocean Force” rip current awareness campaign on the Great Lakes.