VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — We’re in the height of summer, and the Oceanfront is packed with locals and tourists looking to cool off in the water, but as we saw recently, there can be danger lurking there.
Rip Current Risk
Actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner lost his life over the weekend to high currents, while rip currents have claimed the lives of 15 people across the U.S. so far in 2025, according to the National Weather Service. While none of those has been in Virginia waters, it’s still something to be aware of — no matter where you are.
Like many of us, Tom Gill, chief of the Virginia Beach Life Saving Service, grew up watching the Cosby Show. So, hearing about Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s death hit hard.“It’s really sad. It shows how dangerous the ocean can be,” Gill said.
Warner was with his family in Costa Rica when he was pulled under by a high current and drowned. Another person, a 35-year-old man, was caught in the same current and is in critical condition.“If you don’t understand what they’re doing and how to react within a rip current, they can be deadly for anyone,” Gill said. “As the tide starts coming in from low to high is probably one of our more dangerous times.”A rip current is a channel of water moving away from the shore, commonly caused by breaks in sandbars or obstructions in the water like a pier or the jetty. If you feel yourself being pulled into one, remember this:“Number one thing to do is remain calm,” Gill said. “If you can stay on top of the water, you can survive a rip current.”It’ll carry you farther out, but once it’s done, swim parallel to the shore to go around it, and then swim toward the shore.“It’s the fight to exhaustion, or the immediate panic and lack of swimming ability that kill people in rip currents.”While difficult to identify when in the water, lifeguards have an advantage in spotting rip currents, looking down from a height and spotting telltale signs a swimmer can’t see.“They’re usually darker water because it’s a deeper area, so that area is darker, or you’re going to see debris, sand from the shoreline being taken out,” Gill said, “so it’s going to look kind of brown and murky. And sometimes when you’ve got a whole lot of surf, you’ve got a lot of whitewater, you might see that white water going out into that rip current.”…