Spring break brings 'Oklahoma drills' to South Florida's sandy beaches
FORT LAUDERDALE - What do you get when you have spring break and St. Patrick's day at Fort Lauderdale beach?
You get a little bit of everything.
But there's one spring break activity that's catching the eyes of officials at Fort Lauderdale beach, and that's the Oklahoma drills.
"So basically, it's two people laying head-to-head, you say "1,2,3 Go!" They get up and try to like — one guy has the football, they try to get through them, the other guy just tackles them. It's amazing," explained one spring breaker.
During the drills, the person who tackles their opponent to the ground first wins.
While onlookers say they enjoy watching the friendly sandy scuffles, officials are expressing concern.
"They're clashing in football drill type way with head-on collisions with no protective gear whatsoever," said Garrett Pingol with Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue.
These playful beach battles can also result in serious consequences.
"We can potentially see, you know, broken shoulders, clavicles, injuries to the face, broken noses, jaws, and even worse, we worry about paralysis. It just takes one person not understanding the impact of slamming another person to the ground in an unfavorable way, and now we have a cervical injury," said Pingol.
While no serious injuries have been reported, officials are urging spring breakers to take it easy when it comes to the beach fight club.