Goodbye July, Hello August
By by Kailey Aiken
The past few days on the beach have been hot, windy, and the water has been choppy and treacherous. In other words, it’s been really fun on the beach! It’s a lucky thing these conditions have taken place on weekdays rather than the weekend, though. The wind never seems to keep the DFDs from coming down and huge choppy waves pounding the shoreline don’t seem to faze many either.
Rip currents are obviously worsened by the wind and the size of the waves, so trying to move people out of them was nearly impossible on Tuesday. I personally really enjoyed being flipped off by two guys (who were being pulled so hard by the water they could barely walk) when I tried to whistle them over. They proceeded to go back in the water less than two feet away from the rock jetty and were incredibly distraught when the lifeguard on the jetty chair whistled them away from that area too.
Over the weekend, the weather was actually perfect for the beach, so Beach 97th was completely packed Saturday and Sunday. So packed, in fact, that on Sunday, one woman came up to the chair to tell us she couldn’t find where her stuff was. All she could tell us about was where she remembered setting up and what her stuff looked like: “It’s a blue umbrella.” Unfortunately, we were unable to be of much help with that description.
As August rolls in and July comes to a close, hurricane season will be ramping up as well. This means a more powerful and dangerous ocean, but the heat isn’t going anywhere, and neither are the crowds.
There’s been talk in the news about extending lifeguard hours during heatwaves, which wouldn’t be a bad idea considering I’ve watched from the boardwalk as almost every single person we kick out of the water at 6 p.m. goes right back in the second we leave the beach. Without the knowledge of where the rip currents are and where it is safe to swim, it is much easier for people to end up in trouble in the ocean. Not to mention, the ocean is usually the roughest at nighttime.
July has been a crazy month on the beach, and I think we’re all hoping August somehow surprises us and goes calmly and smoothly.
