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Recreation...
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Recreation
Our houses are close to the beach, two of
them have pools, and all three have hot tubs. We may have a pool table and/or
ping pong. The houses will also have TV’s, and VCR’s, and sometimes games and
books. If we are lucky, there might be some exercise equipment. We also bring
our own basketball, Frisbees, and volleyball equipment.
The area also offers rental bikes and
horses, miniature golf, hang gliding, boating, kiting, sight-seeing,
restaurants, shopping, and tennis courts.
There is no organized recreational program,
though groups of people often organize a variety of activities, ranging from
beach walks to water volleyball, sightseeing, and poker games. Participants are
urged to invite as many other participants as possible to join their activities.
Swimming and Rip Tides
The
ocean near our conference site does sometime have "rip tides" or "rip currents,"
which can pose a hazard to swimmers. In a one week period in 1998, 778 swimmers
had to be rescued from the ocean near Corolla Beach and neighboring Dare County.
Though exacerbated by storms or hurricanes, rip currents can occur at almost any
time.
The strategy for escaping a rip current is to swim parallel to the shore, rather
than to try to swim to shore against the current, which is essentially
impossible. Eventually you will come out the side of the rip current and can
then head into shore, assuming that you've conserved your energy. Ocean swimmers
should let others know when they are going in, and generally, not go alone.
To the best of the organizer’s recollection, we've never actually lost anyone to
a rip current, so don’t get too excited about the possibility. But since it
would put a real damper on the conference if very many of us were washed out to
sea, you should be cautious about this potential hazard. And if you are now too
worried to swim in the ocean, we will have at least one private pool.
The following website provides additional
details about rip currents:
http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/guides/mtr/hurr/damg/rip.rxml
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