# Woman swept to sea during proposal **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 6, 2008, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-swept-to-sea-during-proposal/475959 "2008-12-06T04:56:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![lost4life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@lost4life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lost4life)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2008, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-swept-to-sea-during-proposal/475959/41 "2008-12-07T14:14:49Z")
> [@supergoose](#): > > I wouldn’t use dopernames, as many are jokes and could be taken as mocking. Yeah, I think it best if you don’t add my username to the list… ---
**Author:** ![supergoose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@supergoose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/supergoose)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2008, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-swept-to-sea-during-proposal/475959/42 "2008-12-07T22:17:16Z")
> [@supergoose](#): > > I generally say, if you have a generous impulse, you should act on it. It’s not like the world is overflowing with it. Besides, I doubt a little creepiness is going to rate much next to “just lost your fiance.” > [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](#): > > Nonsense! Are you joking? I honestly don’t know. With your username, I’d have thought yes. If I received a condolence card and half of the names listed were puns like “ **Patty O’Furniture** ,” it would not occur to me (assuming I wasn’t an SDMB regular, of course) that they were clever message board usernames. I would assume the best and think that the intent was to include a couple of jokes to cheer me up, but I wouldn’t be able to shake the feeling that it was one person (all the names will be in one handwriting, after all, right?) having a laugh at my expense. (If there was a “jsmith215” thrown in, I’d get it, but I didn’t know if that was the case. And I think explaining on the card that they’re message board names is a good solution.) ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2008, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-swept-to-sea-during-proposal/475959/43 "2008-12-08T01:56:41Z")
> [@Washoe](#): > > From [here](http://www.nps.gov/pore/planyourvisit/beaches.htm). I’ve a related question. I once stayed near a beach where the dangers were very similar to the ones mentioned in the warning you posted. I was thrown to the ground by a really small wave (while someone was taking a picture of me and I was facing away from the sea), so I’m not really surprised by the concept of someone being drowned by a three feet wave. After this incident, when I mentioned it, I was told about the dangers on this beach. Essentially what is written in your warning, except that the person told me about the “every X wave is a sneaker wave” part, apparently untrue according to your warning (of course, it might possibly be true on my French beach and untrue on your American beach but I suspect it’s probably untrue on both). Now, my question is the following. This person told me that in case I would be caught by one of these currents, I shouldn’t fight it, try to escape it, or to swim towards the beach, because I wouldn’t succeed, would exhaust myself and drown. Instead, I should let the current bring me to some distance of the coast, where the current would end, and then swim parallel to the coast, until I would find a “return” current that would bring me back to the beach without effort. Does any poster have a clue as to whether this was possibly a sound advice or a completely idiotic one? (As for the OP’s idea, I’m with the posters who find the concept possibly rather creepy, and at least not the slightest bit comforting if I were the one grieving) ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2008, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-swept-to-sea-during-proposal/475959/44 "2008-12-08T01:59:02Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > Now, my question is the following. This person told me that in case I would be caught by one of these currents, I shouldn’t fight it, try to escape it, or to swim towards the beach, because I wouldn’t succeed, would exhaust myself and drown. Instead, I should let the current bring me to some distance of the coast, where the current would end, and then swim parallel to the coast, until I would find a “return” current that would bring me back to the beach without effort. Does any poster have a clue as to whether this was possibly a sound advice or a completely idiotic one? The advice that I’ve heard is to immediately begin swimming parallel to the beach. IIRC, rip tides are a localized phenomenon. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2008, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-swept-to-sea-during-proposal/475959/45 "2008-12-08T02:11:43Z")
If she hadn’t actually died, that would have been hilarious. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-swept-to-sea-during-proposal/475959.md?page=2)