Rip Current Safety Chart (Click to Enlarge)
Stay safe at the beach this summer and know the signs of a rip current.
Rip Current:?“A 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 converges into a narrow, river-like channel moving away from the shore at high speed.”
Although rip currents are not always obviously visible,? there are indicators to help you spot rip currents:
- A channel of churning or choppy water
- A line of sea foam, seaweed, or debris moving steadily out to sea
- Different colored water beyond the surf zone
- A break in the incoming wave pattern as waves roll onshore.
General characteristics of a rip current are shown in the photographs below:
Rip Current Example 1 (Click To Enlarge)
Rip Current Example 2 (Click To Enlarge)
Rip Current Example 3 (Click To Enlarge)
?What to do if caught in a rip current:
- Stay calm
- Swim along the shoreline, then on an angle back to shore
- If unable to swim along the shore and out of rip current stay floating in rip current.? Eventually the pull will dissipate.? Turn around face shore, wave and yell for help.
