Anonymous wrote:I got caught in a rip tide in Costa Rica years ago. Luckily I was at a beach with calm waves, swam parallel to shore and eventually made it back. But it was exhausting. And one second we were in very shallow water and the next I was very far from shore. The beach he was at is know for more intense waves (favorite surfing beach) even if you do everything right it can still be very hard. Drowning can take as little as 30 seconds.
The ocean is beautiful but can be so scary. This makes me very sad.
I got caught in a rip tide in Puerto Rico a few years ago and I completely forgot everything I knew about swimming parallel b/c I was panicking. I'm a fairly competent swimmer and strong in general, but I was zero match for that rip tide, and when I see a story like this it makes me realize how lucky I was.

Poor MJM. I'm 53, grew up watching the NBC thursday lineup, and am so heartbroken for his family and friends.