Malcolm Jamal-Warner's Death Echoes My Rip Current Story Of Surfing In Costa Rica

Ten years ago, after I placed the surfboard on the hot sand on the beach in Tamarindo, I went back in with a smaller bodyboard to face the tall Costa Rican waves. Not being informed by anyone at the Surfboard rental place, and with no Lifeguards on duty, I stupidly went into the water past my head and was soon trapped in a rip current and was being taken out past the line of surfers and swimmers. My first time surfing would almost be my last.

'Cosby' star Malcolm Jamal-Warner's drowning accident was not only tragic but completely avoidable. Jamal-Warner died Sunday, July 20th at Playa Cocles in Limón, Costa Rica, on a trip with his daughter. Around 2pm Jamal-Warner was caught in a rip current and unfortunately never made it back in alive. Three ambulances were sent to the scene, and CPR was performed to no avail. The area had no lifeguards on duty.

Chris Houser, a professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University Of Windsor had this to say about rip currents in an article with The Conversation:

"Most good swimmers can swim about 1.5 metres per second, whereas Michael Phelps set a record at 2.1 metres per second at the London Olympics. At Playa Cocles beach, where we recorded the worst rips in Costa Rica, we found rips as strong as 2.8 metres per second, so even an Olympic swimmer could get swept up and drown trying to fight the current.”

When I realized I was being taken out to sea, I started a serious struggle to swim back, kicking my feet. Panicking and losing the fight, I was forced to scream for help. I must have yelled four times before two Surfers, a father and son, started paddling towards me and had me hold onto the back of their board while they surfed us back to shore safely.

While the full blame rests with me for not researching what I was doing and where I was, having lifeguards on these tourist beaches would have warned me and Jamal-Warner not to go out so far into the unforgiving ocean. Comment below with your thoughts.

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Written By: Dan Lalonde

Photo Credit: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images/Dan Lalonde