Keep Your Child Alive at the Beach

In over 40 years of swimming at major ocean beaches in the New York area-many of them with major riptides-- I have seen some amazing things. Here are some tips to make sure that your child rides home with you alive after a day at the beach.

Get the skinny on water conditions before you go. You will want to make sure that the water is clean, the surf is calm and lightening is nowhere in sight. Weather.com www.weather.com/outlook/outdoor is one excellent choice for all outdoor activity related weather and even offers the option of having regular alerts about weather and surf conditions sent to your mailbox. Another excellent possibility is Surfline, www.surfline.com/home/index.cfm which does weather.com one better by setting up live cameras on the beach and filming surf conditions in real time.

Ocean beaches are inherently dangerous. Consider safer options such as bay beaches or sound beaches in whose sheltered waters the neophyte swimmer can become strong.

If you do decide to go to an ocean beach and conditions look horrendous, don't feel honor-bound to go in. Jones Beach, for example, also features a beautiful pool, miniature golf and nature walks, as well as a calmer bay beach alternative. Rockaway Beach is within a 5 minute drive of one of the most impressive bird sanctuaries in New York-the Jamaica Bay Wildlife refuge. Coney Island includes a world famous aquarium as well as the beach and the expensive rides. And even at the beach, some fields are calmer than others-ask a lifeguard. Use your noodle. The most clever family that I ever saw packed their own miniature pool to the sands of Rockaway Beach so that the little one could splash in safety while the adults took turns in the notoriously risky surf.

What not to bring to the beach is as important as what to bring. Although you will want to pack plenty of sunblock, an umbrella and sand pail for the little ones, skip the floats and the beach balls. Young children may become overly absorbed in trying to rescue an errant beach ball being driven out to sea by a stiff breeze and swim beyond their capacity trying to rescue it. Inept and poor swimmers on floats and air mattress may be driven beyond a safe distance from shore by the breeze, or dropped into water over their head by prankish friends and siblings. Keep the beach balls, floats, and air-mattresses for poolside fun.

Don't let your little one play unaccompanied-especially in high-surf beaches. I once had the experience of having to plant myself so close to some little tykes playing in the ocean that people mistook me for their mother. The riptides were vicious that day, and I physically shoved one of them out of an ocean-ward moving current several times. In that entire time, mom and dad were nowhere to be seen, and I quietly turned blue in the cold surf while repeatedly suggesting now would be a good time for them to rejoin mom and dad on the beach.

But I am not afflicted with an unhealthy interest in children. Wise parents keep their eyes out for pedophiles and even worse. A policewomen who was also an experienced lifeguard shared with me the time she caught a weirdo intentionally drowning a seven year old boy in the surf so that he could pretend to save him and reap the glory of being a hero.

I hope that you and yours will continue to enjoy the glorious pleasure that a refreshing swim provides. Here's to good health and a healthy respect for mother nature.