That’s not deep, bro!

I took the family swimming in the river with a family friend today.  While it was an enjoyable experience for all involved I think (the four month old is a hard read at this point), I did have one gripe.  First I want to say I recognize we are in the early stages of a drought.  This is evident with the amount of time I have had running and biking under the burning orb above.  I also realize that the beaches up here have equipment of a certain size, and that changing that equipment is not an option considering tax budgets and the economy.  All that being said, I was able to walk out to the farthest line allowed, i.e. what was supposed to be the deepest part, and the water was not much above my belly button.  My eight year old was able to join me out there.  I am not a tall man.  If I had wanted to swim I would have been able to barely do so.  This is not unique at the beach we were at today.  I have seen it at numerous ones around here and I wonder if this was a conscious decision to make it harder for people to drown.  Now I am all for not drowning.  I had an incident as a youth that still haunts me to this day.  Still, when I go out to the deep end, I want to be over my head.  The only way I could get cool was to sit on the mud/sand.  While that still was fun as I was able to play with my three kids that were in the water with me, it was not what I wanted for the whole time.  Can we bring back the deep end, please, before I go off my deep end?