Human instability related to drowning risk in surf zones for novice beachgoers or weak swimmers

This paper provides qualitative descriptions of the physical mechanisms that can cause human instability in surf zones, where human instability is considered the loss of solid contact between an individual’s feet and the seabed. The forces resulting from the combination of waves and currents typical in surf zones present a hazard to novice beachgoers and weak swimmers that is often not recognized by those individuals. A conservative “rule of thumb” is that the deepest water a novice beachgoer should reach, even during the passage of wave crests, is a depth that only reaches the persons thigh, that is, between the knee and the waste.