Not if you were panicking you wouldn't. You would swim like crazy for shore, as would 99% of everyone else.
Please don't speak for me, I can assure you, even when panicking, I'd take 1/10th of a second to glance over my shoulder to see if you were dead, alive, or ahead of me so that maybe you could go for help for me.
Do you have link that shows how 99% of how people react in a riptide when in the ocean with a partner?
Second, can anyone show me a link where GG stated to LE that they were caught in a riptide, swimming in a panic, swimming for their lives? :waitasec: Articles I've seen indicate GG stated that the water started to get rough, he tapped on her leg, signaled they should head in, swam to shore... oops! She's gone.
Never once have I read that he stated he/they were swimming for their lives trying to break out of a riptide.
Last, I'm never going to buy "99% react this way in blah blah blah situation...." I've just watched a video making the media rounds of at least a dozen people run TOWARD a completely engulfed in flames motorcycle and partially engulfed car. Is it smart to run TOWARD flames approaching a car's gas tank? Is it logical for them to believe they could lift the car? Run away from the flames, call for help, everyone says so. No, they ran towards, to lift the car off a STRANGER. Every single one of those people were not in the '99% people'. People all react differently in panic, and emergencies, and some actually become numb, then calm and focused, some do panic and become self focused, some ignore all the rules they know and will break rules to look out for a stranger.