Caught out

摘要

Although we are a nation of ocean-lovers, an alarming number of Australians can't spot a rip current, let alone escape one.YOUR BREATHING is ragged and your muscles burn as you struggle against the strong flow ofwater. You've been swimming for what feels like hours, but the harder you kick the further away the beach seems to be. You try to yell for help but your mouth fills with water. You're caught in a rip and nobody is around to save you."I was terrified. I absolutely thought I was going to die," says Alison Vincent, a 45-year-old mother of three who escaped drowning after being caught in a rip current at Palm Beach when she was 18. Growing up in Windsor, 60km west of Sydney, Alison wasn't accustomed to the ocean. She and a friend decided to go swimming at sunset, while the beach was unpatrolled and deserted.