Five surfers drown in the Netherlands, getting into 'avalanche-like' sea foam

I suspect some light seafoam got sucked under denser foam by currents and then, as it upwelled, basically opened a hole under them. I can't say I've experienced anything at the scale that would drown 5 men, but falling into upwelling foam is definitely a thing.

Wow. That adds a bit of an extra dimension. What a sad event.

> “They were busy training," he said Tuesday. "They then disappeared under the foam like it was some sort of avalanche.”

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I really wouldn't be surprised if the extra foamyness leading to these deaths couldn't eventually be tracked back to some heavy nitrogen fertilizer applied to local fields a week ago, and a rainstorm...

https://twitter.com/regio15/status/1260070967822503936/photo...

SCUBA divers may carry "spare air", but I've never seen surfers do this.

Since while surfing, communication and group behaviour are tricky, I'd say it's likely each of these people individually made their (incorrect) danger assessment.

That effectively puts the fatality rate in these specific conditions at 5/7, or ~70%.

So, to prevent this reoccurring, the specific conditions need to be identified, and other surfers need to be trained to avoid them. I'm thinking something like "Whenever waves are over 5 feet, there is an onshore wind, and a water sample maintains foam for more than 5 minutes, you are unlikely to survive"

Sadly, I doubt very much this will happen.

Surfers, especially in that geography wear wetsuits which give some buoyancy, but not like a life jacket does, and I don't know any surfers who wear life jackets.

I was a WSI, a life guard trainer back in college, still swim 5,200 yds a week which really is nothing compared to swim team, and I scuba dive down to the bottoms of our nearby lakes to set submersible pumps for a living (diving 41 years), my dive gear has a BC vest that can act as a life jacket (if) it is not damaged and (if) my regulator is functioning and (if) I have still have air in my tank and (if) I have not blacked out by like a boat hitting me, too many ifs, but I absolutely will not venture out onto surface of bodies of water on watercraft without wearing a life jacket for a whole host of reasons (surfboards are some sort of watercraft).

I assume they were more or less "drowned" in the foam, unable to breathe, suffocated.

The most professional solution for fighting most fires is foam which puts out fires by sort of drowning them too.