Has anyone ever swam in a lake that had a strong undercurrent? I remember swimming in a lake when I was a kid in Germany, and they told us that it had a strong undercurrent, or undertow, and we should be careful. On one occasion that I was there, there happened to be some people playing ball in the water. They were actually in the water with their clothes on! One of the guys started yelling loudly, but since they all had been making a lot of noise earlier, no-one paid him much attention. The next thing I knew, they were making us get out of the lake, and they started "combing" it, so we knew that someone must have drowned. And, sure enough, it was the same guy who they eventually pulled out of there. He had been pulled in by the undercurrent. He was wearing a pair of pants with a heavy belt, and he also had had a broken arm with a cast on it. Most likely, these things didn't help matters when the current pulled him.
Deadly lake undercurrents...
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ChadTower
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I've been caught in ocean undertows but never one in a lake. Interesting.
I remember swimming in Lake Michigan - beautiful lake with a great city skyline. I never really knew about the undercurrents, but I can only imagine that there would be.
GROUNDpounder
Rubbing stix together
Likewise, that was an interesting swim to say the least....
Never in regular lakes though.
JollyRogers
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I have been caught in a lot of them in the ocean. Essentially an undercurrent is just a jet of water flowing away from the shore. They are usually fairly narrow but they are very strong. Swimming against them will tire you out very quickly. The trick to it is to swim in a direction parallel to the shore until you are out of the undertow, then swim towards shore.
The worst example I have seen was at Ocean Shores. Washington. A girl got caught in a riptide that carried here out and her dad swam out to get here and he got caught, so did another person and eventually a horse and rider, (horses were rented on the beach. They tried to take the horse out to tow everyone in). When it was all said and done I think the little girl and the rider of the horse were the only ones to survive.
It was especially tragic because there were signs every 100 feet or so warning of the riptides and showing how to swim out of one. But everyone lost their heads and most of them drowned. Unfortunately, I arrived just as they pulled the little girl in.
The worst example I have seen was at Ocean Shores. Washington. A girl got caught in a riptide that carried here out and her dad swam out to get here and he got caught, so did another person and eventually a horse and rider, (horses were rented on the beach. They tried to take the horse out to tow everyone in). When it was all said and done I think the little girl and the rider of the horse were the only ones to survive.
It was especially tragic because there were signs every 100 feet or so warning of the riptides and showing how to swim out of one. But everyone lost their heads and most of them drowned. Unfortunately, I arrived just as they pulled the little girl in.
oldsarge
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I find the terms rip tide, under current and undertow used a lot. I don't know their origins But I know from experience that rip tides are common to the oceans. As JollyRogers said, they are currents pulling away from shore. I was told by EMS folks from the city that the lake has under currents which at times can travel parallel to the shore line and below the surface. Don't ask me how, just passing on info here. Maybe it has something to do with the close proximity of steel mills and refineries along the lake front. Could be heated water mixing with cold lake water causes currents, again I don't know.