A Closer Look at Friday's Rip Currents and Lifesavers

[XLFD]

This article is also posted in the Let's ROLL group: 

As explained in this recent thread, if not for the courage of some fearless surfboarders some lives may have been lost.  Today's City of Ludington Daily News (COLDNews) elaborated on the basics of the story that was hinted on in the previous article about some people needing to be saved on Friday due to some nasty rip currents at Stearn's Beach.  See if you can determine what is present and what is missing in this article written by Steve Begnoche:

 

                                                           File photo

Patrick Sybert of Golden Township credits adrenaline and angels for helping him and fellow surfers Tim Driscoll of Holland and “Toledo Bob” save five people pulled out into Lake Michigan Friday afternoon by a rip current off Stearns Park.
“It was a major deal,” Sybert told the Daily News this morning. “These people are alive; there is not any recovery going on today.”

Sybert said he’d been surfing at Ludington State Park until his friends called and told him to come to Stearns Park.

“We were just having a good time. We were playing in those big waves, we were like dolphins in those big waves,” he said.

Surfers, he explained, use the rip currents like those airport moving walkways to ride out into the lake and not have to fight the waves they surf back in on.

An ardent, year-round Great Lakes surfer, Sybert said he’d been surfing about six hours when the drama began late Friday afternoon.

Waves were running 3 to 4 feet with “sets” of 6 to 7 foot waves the surfers sought for their rides rolling in every 3 to 5 minutes.

They were enjoying the surfing when they heard screams.

http://www.ludingtondailynews.com/news/72235-surfer-talks-about-hel...=

 

The print news continues the story: 

 

 

Over the weekend, a young lady drowned in Lake Michigan in Muskegon, and we had an older man drown just to the north around the Nordhouse Dunes area.  We were very lucky that we had some dedicated surfers who love rip currents down at Stearn's Park on Friday save our visitors. 

[XLFD]

They were very heroic in their actions and very humble in the aftermath.

[Willy]

One thing that really stands out to me is the lack of  any mention of the "beach patrol". I  bet that most readers are wondering where was the beach patrol. Of course There was no mention of the them in the LDN. I would sure like to know where they  were and if they had  any   involvement with the rescue. These incidents proves the need for lifeguards and the wasted  money that is being spent on  "beach patrol" personal. Again the LDN does a partial job of reporting what is going on in Ludington. Another thing I noticed was the relating to the first couple that was rescued as "African American". What does the race of the rescued individuals have to do with the story.

[XLFD]

Good catch; exactly zero mention of the beach patrol in the newspaper and by the newspaperman who is most apologetic for the strange policies of the City of Ludington. 

BTW, I finally went down to the beach during the middle of the day and finally found a member of the beach patrol.  This was the first time in four tries, he was across from the Skate Plaza talking with an LPD officer and DPW worker for 5-10 minutes with his back to the beach-- but he was there.

[Willy]

If the pool in this video had been owned by the city of  Ludington there probably would have been a drowned child because Ludinton does not believe in having life guards. They would rather spend money on non productive beach patrols and housing foreclosures.

[AQUAMAN]

Yup, where was the "beach patrol"? Wth were they doing, talking on cells? Texting? Hanging out in a fun job watching the bikini's? Worthless is what comes to mind first. Then today, we have the north breakwall finally being closed down at 1pm, not 9am, not 7am, not in line with the current conditions. And who is making that final, perhaps fatal decision? Yup, it's the City Mgr. Shay, the guy that sits in city hall about 1 mile away, at his plushy office, with a $100K+ salary, doing routine office work. The present system isn't working, really? Yup, it's doomed for failure, and that means more needless lost lives. How many more "close-calls" do we have to endure this summer? Did anyone notice Barnett's statement about how "he's struck by how conditions can vary from place to place along the same shoreline on the same day"? Anyone from west Michigan that has been from port to port knows that simple equation. Differing areas, differing depth changes, differing currents, differing shoreline contours, and much more. I guess when you are from Oakland County, this kind of experience and information isn't worthy of studying. If it's not too stupid and obvious to all here in our fair town, we NEED OUR LIFEGUARDS BACK! Like Yesterday! A big group of concerned citizens need to protest, and put high pressure on city hall to get some action yet this season, before the calamity unfolds, and the caskets are lined up for lost souls.

[AQUAMAN]

Willy, that's a uniquely vivid video that shows exactly how important the lifeguard system works. This was a controlled pool environment, totally the opposite of unpredictable big Lake Michigan. And I think we can all see how important time is when a drowning situation exists, it's the difference between life and death. I guess for now, we'll just rely on launching rescue boats and make the best of it, taking precious time to arrive on the scene quite far away, taking chances that communications will be made in time, and that surfers and onlookers will save the day that ARE ALREADY on the Scene. To me at least, this is fatal folly at it's best. How these city council members look on and continue to do absolutely nothing, is beyond my comprehension for preservation of human life. I guess if you don't attend the beach at all, are as big as a Walrus and can't swim, don't tan, don't really have any interest nor experience with the big lake, cause you're a Detroiter at heart, it's a moot point. I would like to see a local team of experienced lifeguard types offer their service up as a private contractor for the balance of the season here right now. At least we would have some realistic chance then for the proper response to these tragic occurrences.

[XLFD]

Shay and Barnett believe lording over a parking lot is more important and requires more funding than offering rescue services and keeping the beach open.  It's a point I've been making the last five years: they ain't all there upstairs when it comes to common sense.  And our City Attorneys from Manistee, they are loving what Ludington's policies are doing for the tourism business in their home town, where they also supply attorney services for.

I went down to the beach this evening, the shoreline was vacant but for one lone swimmer, an amusing reprobate from Petoskey flying under the radar of the LPD officer.  The breakwall was closed and the beach was calm as butter south of the breakwall, quite wavy north of it but not severe.  Before that, I had caught the Beach Patrol over at the Municipal Marina just before the Badger came in; he rode his vehicle up and around on the city streets back to the beach before he came back about fifteen minutes later to turn into the fire department.   All in violation of the law, of course.

[Willy]

Someone at City Hall has taken notice that the beach patrol was not actually patrolling the beach. I saw the vehicle they drive parked next to the life guard station. Although this is an improvement the 2 individuals inside must spot trouble from behind a windshield and I also noticed they were doing a lot of talking instead of watching.

[XLFD]

I went through the area right around 1 PM today and saw the patrol cart parked near the south concession stand in the parking lot, and a beach patrol guy pedaling against traffic up the outer drive on a bike.  I didn't see a second guy, but it's good to see they are at least hanging around the flag.

[XLFD]

The beach patrol was busy yesterday writing parking tickets at least.  An evening walk down to the Loomis Street boat ramp found a lot of tickets on the windshields of trucks w/trailers attached.  These were for double parking, and it was rather odd because some of these were given to vehicles that seemed to have parked within the lines, maybe a small piece of the trailer on the lines at most. 

Now when you make these parking spaces so thin that it becomes a chore to fit within them, and then give a nuisance parking ticket for $30 to those who believed they were parking correctly, who come back after a relaxing day of fishing to find it, you're threatening the very industry that we are spending so much $$$ trying to promote:  tourism. 

And it would be perhaps be a little more fair if the ticket-makers would follow their own rules, but the law is two-tiered here in Mason County: 

[Johnny]

Isn't it possible that the officer is running radar?  I have been in there and cars do fly through there, especially when its not busy, like the pictures shows (zero cars parked within 6-8 spaces by the patrol car)

 

Also, parking tickets can be written in the loomis ramp for not having a pass, I have heard of people getting them in there for not having a boat launch pass for the season or for a daily one. 

 

This is also the 2nd time you have used this picture for two different "complaints" of the police department.  Is it a jealousy thing?  If your house was on fire, or you were having health problems, or someone was breaking into your house(apartment)...would you call the police?  Its funny how you love to slander and degrade the LPD officers and even the county officers, but you would expect them to help you and I am sure they would.  But we all know after they help and you or save you life, you would come on here and complain about something and then call your lawyer and find a silly lawsuit to file. 

[AQUAMAN]

And more Cameltoes.