Educate yourself during rip current awareness week

This week is rip current awareness week, so this may be a good time to learn a little more about them and how to survive them. A rip current, also known as a rip tide, is a strong surface current of water usually flowing from inside a sand bar into deeper water. Most deaths associated with rip currents occur when people panic and try to swim directly toward shore against the current, they usually become totally exhausted and drown. The rip current does not drag a person underwater but moves them at speeds of up to five miles per hour into deeper water. Since rip currents are normally only about 10 to 30 yards wide, if caught in one, the best escape, especially for the weak or non-swimmer, is to wade or swim sideways across the current, parallel to the beach. Rip currents tend to extend on average from 50 to 200 yards offshore, so another way to make it out alive is to float with the current out beyond the breakers where the rip current will weaken, then swim shoreward at an angle away from it.

You can get much more information HERE.