swept away
There’s a rock wall at the southern end of the deserted beach today and at this time of year the sand down there builds up and provides an escape for the regular and bigger sets that break further out and flow to the beach before withdrawing and slowly easing their way from the shallows along the foreshore and towards the northern end. This flow of water is hardly noticeable. To some.
Then, halfway down the beach this undertow merges into a deep channel and surges back out; it’s quicker now, the water darker, more disturbed, chopped by the onshore wind competing with the offshore flow.
She was standing there with a little girl playing in the wet shallows by her feet, building sand castles and laughing as the incoming water splashed at her ankles.
And thirty feet offshore in water up to her shoulders played another little girl, older than her sister, splashing and laughing, mother hardly watching.
Mother not noticing the subtle sweep of water coming from the southern end and which will soon sweep her older daughter away from her and into the rip.
I stopped and asked the woman if the little girl playing out there could swim. She said no, not very well, if at all.
..
An old friend suggests this is how you deal with kiddies who would otherwise drown in deep water.
Thanks Gav, kid’s a winner.
petebowes.com 
Pete, I’ve been taking our granddaughter to swimming lessons in Perth for the last two years: now she’s four and loving the water, and (over) confident. Swimming (and common sense) are essential for survival in our coastal continent. All the best, Gavin
PS, I’d post a pic, but can’t?