Rip Currents

• Rip currents can be found in oceans, large lakes


• 100 people per year die in rip currents


• 80% of water rescues are rip current related


• More people die in rip currents than in Hurricanes, Tornadoes and Thunderstorms
  
• 2/3 of the people who die in water related deaths come from inland states


• Rip currents move at 2 - 8 ft per second. Olympic swimmers can't swim 8 ft per second.

• Don't panic.


• Don't try to swim directly into shore


• Get horizontal, into swimming position. If you're upright, there's more of you for the current to pull on


• Swim parallel to the beach

Before you swim, do the following:

• Know the temp of the water - how long could you stay out there?


• Watch the water for 15-20 minutes: how high are the waves, how frequently do they come in, are there any calm spots, do you see any 'dirty' spots (churned up sand/mud)


• What's the tide doing? Going in, out? Is it at high tide?


• Are there safe exits out of the water?

Rip Currents are created when large waves/wind push water against the shore. The water builds up and needs to go some place so it travels along the shore. When if finds a weak spot in a sandbar running parallel to the shore it pushes through.

Rip currents are characterized by calm areas in the waves, sandy/muddy looking water streaming out from shore.

In this picture, you can see 'spike' of surf going away from shore out into the ocean. This picture copied from the Rip Currents research site at http://www.ocean.udel.edu/ripcurrents/Research/index.html

From the NOAA Glossary of Terms
http://www.ripcurrents.noaa.gov/glossary.shtml

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.

Undertow: There is spirited discussion and disagreement among coastal scientists on the existence of a nearshore process called "undertow," and hence there is not an agreed on definition for this word. Undertow is a term often and incorrectly used for rip currents. The best explanation for what many people attribute to "undertow" is as follows: After a wave breaks and runs up the beach, most of the water flows seaward; this "backwash" of water can trip waders, move them seaward, and make them susceptible to immersion from the next incoming wave; however, there is no surf zone force that pulls people under the water.