Sunday, 12 October 2008

Caught in a rip: behavioural change and the 'last packet syndrome'

Spent some time in the sea at the weekend: lovely weather. Admittedly, I accurately described my swim on Saturday as 'prating around' to 2 surfers I was close to when I stopped to tred water. I think they were impressed that someone would be out in '2 metre swell' - their exaggerated description - but I was not doing anything structured; particularly in the context of Norseman next year. On Sunday, I made the effort to be more swimming and try and concentrate of technique, which was progress. Did get caught in a real (as opposed to just a metaphoric rip) that resulted in me swimming and Si on his board paddling for 10 minutes (Si counted 250 strokes) with no progress...

I posted a comment on a friends (Jason, I hope you will allow me to use that description!) blog, which has made me think more on 'changing behaviour' or, to put it in the scenario of sea swimming, 'escaping the rip tide'. Jason has of, almost, 2 days ago given up smoking and started a blog as part of discipline of stopping - http://ciggiesbegone.blogspot.com/ - (which I recommend for excellent prose as well as enabling you to post supportive comment). Anyway, I questioned the need for the 'last packet' - on reflection I feel that maybe I need my own version of a 'last packet' to stimulate me to change behaviour. My own syndrome 'I will do it tomorrow' syndrome does not seem that effective (it is a good few weeks since I posted my 'can a leopard change its spots' blog...)

Date for change now set for 20/10: need to define objectives this week.

P.S. From recollection, if you are caught in a sea rip current:
  1. Do not panic
  2. Do not try and swim against rip
  3. Try and gauge which way the rip is going and swim at right angles i.e., across the rip until you are out of rip and then head back towards shore

(As a more comprehensive guidance http://www.asrltd.co.nz/downloads/Reefs/reef%20safety/RipBrochure.pdf appears useful)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What do you do if you see someone else struggling to get back in as they are caught in a rip?

Anonymous said...

Royzy, jump in and swim out to person in rip, tell them not to worry, tell them to grab hold of your shorts while you swim heroically to the shore ignoring all the advice you have just read in the sporting accountants blog. Get very tired going no where. Start crying as you think about the possible consequences of your actions. Try very hard to remember the advice given in this blog while shouting for help, cry a little more, apologise to swimmer in rip.