Couple years ago I was snorkelling in Hawaii by myself. Family was on the beach not too far away. All of a sudden the life guards started freaking out blowing horns and stuff and the waves started crashing in. I got caught in a rip tide and sucked way out with nothing but a mask, snorkel and a pair of stupid fins.
I know you're supposed to swim parallel to the shore to escape the rip tide, but before I realized what was happening I tried as hard as I could to swim straight into shore. There's nothing more tiring and demoralizing than swimming as hard as you can in one direction and have Mother Nature send you further back than where you started from.
Life guards and other paddle surfers rescued most of the swimmers who got sucked out like me. I managed to swim into shore on my own (way the fack down the beach from my family mind you), and learned a valuable lesson that day. Thankfully I learned how to swim as a kid and will definitely make sure all my kids do the same.
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