Introducing Little Ripper!
Are you an accidental luddite like me? Oh how technology gets me all hot under the collar. Almost Ashton Goggans level hot under the collar. It drives me crazy when my phone/computer don’t intuit exactly what I need and respond instantly. I know it is silly. I know it is all my fault, my non-binary brain stuck in a bourbon bog, but I still blame the tech and internally threaten to burn Silicon Valley to the ground.
But did you know that technology does good things? Even technology that is essentially annoying like drones?
It’s true! And should we turn our eyes to the New York Post?
The world’s first water rescue-by-drone happened Thursday in Australia, when a machine saved the lives of two teenage boys caught in dangerous surf off the eastern coast of the continent, reports said.
The new drone — called the Little Ripper — dropped an inflatable rescue pod to the boys, allowing them to make it to shore three times faster than a normal rescue, the BBC reported.
“It took only 70 seconds from when the Little Ripper drone was launched to when it dropped the pod into the ocean for the rescue, a task that would usually take a lifeguard up to six minutes to complete,” Ben Franklin, Parliamentary Secretary for Northern New South Wales, told The Sydney Morning Herald.
The Little Ripper… I don’t know that I’ve ever read a better name for anything.
And let us go back to the Great Jaws Debate of ’18. Remember that Albee Layer pointed out the dangers of water safety when all the skis have photographers and are trying to get clips instead of rescuing drowning surfers?
Well wouldn’t the Little Ripper instantaneously solve this problem?
Well?
Commented on Disqus? Log out, tap the Disqus button, and your old name and comments come back. The box is ours.
Your comments are still here. Every one of them.
Twelve years of BeachGrit comments came across from Disqus. Connect and we will show you how many are yours. We get your username, nothing else.
Connect Disqus to reveal.
Finally listened to the podcast Chas, regardless of who is right or wrong you were really getting steamrolled in the debate and starting a fight was really the only logical way of stopping the onslaught as you seem to recover slightly In the 2nd half though I think Ashton probably won round 1, will there be a round 2?
I like to think the little ripper is actually just michael caramelllllla with a jet pack
Get a mullet up ya!
Those two would of swam in faster without that half inflated thing hindering them. They blatantly new what they were doing, virtually lying on there backs sculling and enjoying the sunshine. I bet they were half decent bodysurfers and all!
I let off a little ripper just this morning
fuckin oath
Might need the Big Ripper out Jaws?
Global hoax…look at the vid.
Teen 1 has flippers on.
You got punked.
Fuck I so want to bust this open! I wish I was up there and could find those kids and get ’em to come clean. Do it shearer!
Do tell Nick Carroll, and why won’t you bust them? Are you in cahoots?
No ricmatic it is because Lennox Head is 800 kilometres from where I live, and this is a local type of thing. I’ve got little chance of finding them from here.
Your aliby checks out Mr Carroll. But why don’t you stay put til this whole thing blows over, just so we can be sure…
I have been looking all arvo, in between sessions at the Point.
Yo Dez! This is why you don’t placate the help with a Pyzel Ghost!
Who you gonna call ? Ghost 👻 Busters
maybe start looking at the top of the chain with Big Kev’s sometime frosty relationship with SLSA and previous attempts to use the red and yellow colours
The New York Post reports about a rescue in Australia that was accomplished by aid of a drone as reported by the BBC. Me thinks someone is being a Little Fibber. There’s no f’n way dropping a rescue buoy from a drone would have any appreciable effect. When I lifeguarded, there were times I let the victim get thrashed a few more times before I reached them. And that was always because I was going out to rescue the same dumbass I had already rescued twice that same day. They needed to be taught a lesson that I was more than happy to dispense.
What? Dropping an inflatable thing wouldn’t help someone who was struggling to stay above water? Did you just write this to let people know that you were a lifeguard, but one that dispensed tough love? Because any real lifeguard would get fired in a heartbeat if they actually did that. Methinks someone is being a Little Fibber.
The story doesn’t talk about them struggling to stay afloat. It says it helped them get to shore 3 times faster vs. what a lifeguard could accomplish. I call bullshit. Holding onto a floatation device is all fine and good but does nothing appreciable getting them to shore.
You bet I dispensed tough love. Most beachgoers who got in trouble were from out of town and despite what you told them during wet prevents, nothing usually sunk in. Not their fault. That is till they repeatedly needed my help to the detriment of others. At a certain point, fear was an appreciable motivating factor. Any real lifeguard would agree with me. Go fuck yourself you boyscout!
There was a camera attached to the drone and the resultant video accompanies the BBC story.
I see Longtom’s claim now. This is getting deep state fast.
What a fantastic application for drone technology. Can you imagine how stoked those drowning kids were when a mini helicopter dropped them life preservers? Fucking awesome!
Edit: wait it’s fake? So I sucked up to the robot overlords for nothing?
Some people were just born to drown. Best to leave Darwinian natural selection theory alone.
I am not sure I want every person rescued at Jaws. I’m assuming the little ripper actively discriminates?
Clearly the two teenagers had not been consuming Laird SuperFoods.
They need a numbering system for those, like for toddler squeezie pouches.
i was saved by a little ripper once. Pulled me out of the drunken stupor and onto the dancefloor
Minnie Riperton?