Contact:
Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project
Dave Benjamin, Executive Director and Public Relations
708-903-0166
Michigan
Sea Grant
Elizabeth
Laporte, Communication and Education Services Director
734-647-0767
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.
###
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.
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