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With rip currents at many beaches posing the biggest danger to bathers in the water, it is crucial to know how to spot them and what to do when caught in one.
This is according to the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI), which states that rip currents claim the lives of many people each year, and can move slowly enough to barely be detected.
“With patience and careful observation, it is not hard to see that water in a channel or ‘river’ between breaking waves is moving away from the beach.
“The current may not flow straight out from the beach. It may flow at an angle or have a bend or two in it before it gets to the backline where waves are forming,” the NSRI states.
This is what you should look out for:
-Water through a surf zone that is a different colour to the surrounding water
-A change in the incoming pattern of waves (often the waves are not breaking in a rip channel)
-Seaweed, sand ‘clouds’, or debris moving out to the backline where waves are forming through the surf zone
-Turbulent or choppy water in the surf zone in a channel or river-like shape flowing away from the beach
Although the NSRI says the best resource to help you avoid rip currents are lifeguards and swimming where lifeguards are on duty, if you are ever caught up in one, this is what you should do:
Do not panic. Stay calm and force yourself to relax. You are not going to win a fight with the ocean. Swim slowly and conservatively out of the current or relax and let it carry you out past the breakers until it slacks.
A rip current will not pull you under the water. So long as you can float you will be safe until you can escape the current, by swimming to the side (out of it) and then back to the beach. Be sure to maintain a slow and relaxed pace until you reach the shore or assistance arrives.
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