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Information on Riptides or Rip Currents
(there is a video, below, of a person who was caught for 10 hours in a rip current)
Why Rip Currents Form
As waves travel from deep to shallow water, they will break near the shoreline. When waves break strongly in some locations and weakly in others, this can cause circulation cells which are seen as rip currents: narrow, fast-moving belts of water traveling offshore. Rips are fast-moving currents of water that can pull even the strongest swimmer away from the shore. According to the U.S. Lifesaving Association (USLA), rip currents account for at least 100 deaths each year at U.S. surf beaches.
Below is a graphic that shows you to swim parallel to the shore first, to get out of the flow, then swim towards shore.
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Here is real life news on how dangerous a rip current can be:
ABC NEWS A 19-year-old Louisiana teen spent 10 hours in the open sea after a rip current dragged him out into the ocean off the Georgia coast.
Blake Spataro said he was sitting in the ocean off the coast of St. Simon’s Island Tuesday when a rip tide dragged him out to sea.
“It blew me by surprise,” Spataro told ABC News.
There was no lifeguard nearby and Spataro said he began screaming in the hope someone would hear him but to no avail and he was washed out to sea beyond the sight of land.
“Utterly shocked,” Spataro said he tried to paddle back to his family on the shore without success.
Spataro told ABC News he had no idea he had been out there for 10 hours. He said in order to conserve energy, he would shut his eyes and rest for 20 minutes or so. He laid on his back and floated.
For Spataro, there was only one other being in his company – God.
“I was talking to God the entire night,” he said. “I was sincerely worried that I was not going to make it and I just needed some comfort before passing.”
He prayed for life boats or other people that would find him. He said when he heard the helicopters and saw the boats in the distance search for him, he had renewed hope.
The teen told ABC he began to ride with the currents until he saw the shore; he knew he was in reach, and that he was going to live.
Spataro ended up at a golf course on Wednesday morning where workers at the golf course got him food, water and called for an ambulance.
“I’ve been in the Coast Guard for 18 years and I have never seen anything like this,” said Justin Irwin, senior chief with the U.S. Coast Guard in Brunswick.
“Worst vacation ever,” Spataro said, “but also my most exciting ever.”
CNN also reported the rip current story.
How to Identify Rip Currents
Look at the water for any of these rip current clues:
- a channel of churning, choppy water
- an apparent outward flow of water.
- an area having a notable difference in water color – often the water looks dirty or muddy because the rip current picking up sand while heading out.
- a line of foam, seaweed, or debris moving steadily seaward
- a break in the incoming wave pattern – this means if waves are breaking everywhere, except for an area where they should be, that a rip current is flowing against the waves.
None, one, or more of the above clues may indicate the presence of rip currents. Rip currents are often not readily or easily identifiable to the average beach-goer.
You can also watch the NOAA rip current safety training program.
How to Avoid and Survive Rip Currents
- First things first – learn how to swim!
- Never swim alone.
- If in doubt, don’t go out!
- Be cautious at all times, especially when swimming at unguarded beaches.
- Whenever possible, swim at a lifeguard-protected beach.
- Obey all instructions and orders from lifeguards.
- If caught in a rip current, remain calm to conserve energy and think clearly.
- Don’t fight the current. Swim out of the current in a direction following the shoreline. See image above – When out of the current, swim towards shore.
- If you are unable to swim out of the rip current, float or calmly tread water. When out of the current, swim towards shore.
- If you are still unable to reach shore, draw attention to yourself: face the shore, wave your arms, and yell for help.
- If you see someone in trouble, get help from a lifeguard. If a lifeguard is not available, have someone call 9-1-1 .
- Throw the rip current victim something that floats and yell instructions on how to escape.
The Most Dangerous Aspect Of Rip Currents
Remember, many people drown while trying to save someone else from a rip current.
Why Rip Currents are Dangerous
Rip currents are the leading surf hazard for all beachgoers. They are particularly dangerous for weak or non-swimmers. Rip current speeds are typically 1-2 feet per second. However, speeds as high as 8 feet per second have been measured–this is faster than an Olympic swimmer can sprint! Thus, rip currents can sweep even the strongest swimmer out to sea.
Over 100 drownings due to rip currents occur every year in the United States.More than 80% of water rescues on surf beaches are due to rip currents.
Rip currents are powerful currents of water moving away from shore. They can sweep even the strongest swimmer out to sea. Rip currents can occur at any beach with breaking waves, including the Great Lakes.
How To Escape A Rip Current
How Surfers Use Rip Currents
Surfers, even though they shouldn’t, use rip currents to find the easiest way OUT to the surf. They see where the “rip current express” is flowing outward. It will be the area with the lowest wave heights and fastest flow.
Remember, Swim Parallel
If caught in a rip current, don’t fight it by trying to swim directly to shore. Instead, swim parallel to shore until you feel the current relax, then swim to shore. Most rip currents are narrow, and a short swim parallel to shore will bring you to safety. Rip currents account for over 80% of rescues performed by surf beach lifeguards.
More Riptide Safety Information
You can link to this page using this URL http://bit.ly/RipCurrentSafety
Backwash The seaward return of the water following the uprush of the waves. Also called backrush or run down.
Breaker A wave that has become so steep that the crest of the wave topples forward, moving faster than the main body of the wave.
Breaker zone The zone within which waves approaching the coastline commence breaking, typically in water depths of between 5 m and 10 m.
Cusp One of a series of short ridges on the shore separated by crescent-shaped troughs spaced at more or less regular intervals. Between these cusps are hollows. The cusps are spaced at somewhat uniform distances along beaches.
Groin A shore-protection structure (built usually to trap littoral drift or retard erosion of the shore). It is narrow in width (measured parallel to the shore) and its length may vary from tens to hundreds of meters (extending from a point landward of the shoreline out into the water). Groins may be classified as permeable (with openings through them) or impermeable (a solid or nearly solid structure).
Head of a rip That part of a rip current circulation typically located beyond the breakers, marked by a spreading out or fanning of the circulation. It is here where the velocity and strength of the rip current circulation begins to weaken considerably.
Jetty On open seacoasts, a structure extending into a body of water to direct and confine the stream or tidal flow to a selected channel, or to prevent shoaling. Jetties are built at the mouth of a river or entrance to a bay to help deepen and stabilize a channel and facilitate navigation.
Littoral currents A current running parallel to the beach and generally caused by waves striking the shore at an angle.
Littoral drift The sedimentary material moved parallel to the shoreline in the nearshore zone by waves and currents.
Longshore current A current located in the surf zone, moving generally parallel to the shoreline, generated by waves breaking at an angle with the shoreline, also called the alongshore current.
Neck That part of a rip current circulation located in the surf zone, marked by a narrow band of swiftly moving, seaward flowing water. It is here where velocity of the circulation is at a maximum, and where most rip current drowning deaths occur.
Rip Channel A channel cut by the seaward flow of a rip current, usually crossing a sandbar.
Rip current A relatively small-scale surf-zone current moving away from the beach. Rip currents form as waves disperse along the beach causing water to become trapped between the beach and a sandbar or other underwater feature. The water converges into a narrow, river-like channel moving away from the shore at high speed. A rip current consists of three parts: the feeder current flowing parallel to the shore inside the breakers; the neck, where the feeder currents converge and flow through the breakers in a narrow band or “rip”; and the head, where the current widens and slackens outside the breaker line.
Rip Tide Rip currents are not rip tides. A distinctly separate type of current includes both ebb and flood tidal currents that are caused by egress and ingress of the tide through inlets and the mouths of estuaries, embayments and harbors. These currents may cause drowning deaths, but these tidal currents or jets are a separate and distinct phenomenon from rip currents. Recommended terms for this phenomenon
include ebb jet or tidal jet.
Run-up The rush of water up a beach due to the breaking of a wave. The amount of run-up is the vertical height above stillwater level that the rush of water reaches.
Significant Wave Height The average wave height of the one-third highest waves of a given wave group.
Surf Zone Area of water between the high tide level on the beach and the seaward side of breaking waves.
Swell Wind-generated waves that have traveled out of their source region, usually over a considerable distance. Swell waves exhibit a more regular and longer period with flatter crests than choppy, locally generated wind waves.
Undertow Different than a Rip Current!
Wave Height The vertical distance between the crest and the preceding trough of a wave.