Walton Co on Good Morning America

[goofer]

thanks for this important post. i read the gma website on riptides ( thx sj ) and learned what to do if i ever get caught in a riptide. invaluable information.

 

[Santa Rosa Pete]

I saw the GMA piece on rip currents and the video coverage was largely from outside Walton County. At one point as the VO was mentioning South Walton, they were showing the bridge at East Pass in Destin. Believe I'd call that Okaloosa.

In any event, it was less a report about SoWal and more a very well-done explanation of how rip currents are formed and how a potential victim can save their a** if they don't try to overpower the current.

I must say, however, the footage they showed must have been from one of the grayest, dull-water days ever along the Emerald Coast. The surf looked every bit as cloudy as a mid-Atlantic beach. Not a hint of emerald/azure, much less sugar sands. Not exactly a great advertisement for the area -- but, then again, maybe that's a good thing. SoWal? Shhhhhhhh ....

PS - Is anybody else gonna miss Charlie Gibson on GMA as much as me? He was, without a question, the best!

 

[DD]

Yep. love Charlie!

 

[Smiling JOe]

Please start a new thread on Charlie if you like.>>>>>>>>>>>Lounge

 

[Mango]

Hi Pete:
Maybe it was just the location and the way the sun was hitting the water,the cameras etc. why the water didn't look so green.
Love Charlie too!

if you are down at the beach this 4th , can you make sure my lot does not burn down?!
Give our regards to your wife........

 

[Underthebluemoon]

Ugh, I saw it this morning. They must have said "Walton County" about 10 times, as if we should be listed under "World's Most Dangerous Beaches".

Thank you but I will take our sharks and rip currents over the e-coli and medical waste covered beaches in New Jersey anyday.

That is not a fair representation of New Jersey's beaches at all. We visit there occasionally as we live about three hours West, and there is nothing wrong with MOST of the New Jersey beaches, they're just different.

We come to Sowal for vacation, but it is really uncool for you to misrepresent another area's beaches simply to defend your own.

 

[Kurt]

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey_Shore"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey_Shore[/ame]

During the 1970s, the beaches of the Jersey Shore gained a somewhat unsavory reputation for being polluted, popularized in part by incidents of medical waste from Fresh Kills Landfill in New York City washing up on the shore (an example of this is the "Syringe Tide" in 1987). New York was forced to pay for the cleanup after New Jersey took them to court.

 

[Underthebluemoon]

I am quite familiar with that. It was ten years ago.....

I have read (on this site, too) about foreign matter and possible bacterias in Florida's beach waters too.....Does that mean it's okay to say that Florida beaches are all bad?

So I still think that it is uncool to respresent that all of New Jersey beaches are "e-coli and medical waste covered." Simply not true. And I'm not a New Jersey beach lover, either.

 

[Santa Rosa Pete]

UTBM:

Chill out. Nobody said all Jersey beaches suck. Some do, some don't. But fact is, the best Jersey Beach couldn't hold a candle to a SoWal beach -- even on a bad SoWal day (if there is such a thing).

So enjoy your hard-packed, brown/gray sand ... your mostly murky water ... your over-crowded weekends ... and your 62-degree water in July. As for me, I'll kick back on our sugar sands, enjoy the emerald/azure ribbons of color and hoist a chilly Corona in your honor -- all the while contemplating the relatively easy trade-off of hurricanes and being in God's Country. Alas, the price of paradise ...

SRP

 

[Underthebluemoon]

UTBM:

Chill out. Nobody said all Jersey beaches suck. Some do, some don't. But fact is, the best Jersey Beach couldn't hold a candle to a SoWal beach -- even on a bad SoWal day (if there is such a thing).

So enjoy your hard-packed, brown/gray sand ... your mostly murky water ... your over-crowded weekends ... and your 62-degree water in July. As for me, I'll kick back on our sugar sands, enjoy the emerald/azure ribbons of color and hoist a chilly Corona in your honor -- all the while contemplating the relatively easy trade-off of hurricanes and being in God's Country. Alas, the price of paradise ...

SRP

You tell me to "chill out" and then write that sarcastically toned post directed to me as though they are MY beaches????

I hope you choke on that Corona.