Do you know how to identify a rip current?
Courtesy of St Pete Beach Fire Dept.
Rip currents provide visual cues for you to identify potential hazard zones before getting in the water. One of the best visual identifiers of a rip current is to look out for gaps between the waves. The calmer gap between waves may look safer for you to swim but a small patch of calm water in an otherwise choppy sea is often a rip current. One of these gaps is pictured below—the rip current is in between the two red arrows.
Look out for discolored water near the shore. Rip currents tend to drag large amounts of sand and sediment back out to sea with them, so many rip currents are easily identified by a noticeable jet of crud in the water extending away from the shore.
Rip currents are also common in areas with sand bars (both surface and submerged), piers, jetties, groins, and anything else that sticks out from the beach that could catch a longshore current and cause it to start flowing away from shore.
Rip currents don’t pull you under the water, instead they pull you away from shore very quickly. If you’re ever caught in one, don’t panic. You’ll start drifting away from the shore and your first instinct will be to panic and try to swim back as quickly as possible. Even the best swimmers can’t swim against a rip current—since you can’t fight the power of the water, you have to be smarter than the water.
If you’re a good swimmer and you find yourself getting pulled out to sea, you have to swim parallel to the beach so you can get out of the current. Once you escape the influence of the outbound water, you can start swimming back towards shore.
If you’re not able to swim out of the current, signal for help by waving your arms and calling out for help while you try to stay afloat.