How long does a riptide last

A calmer body of water in an otherwise choppy sea might look safe to splash in, but these small breaks are often rip tides. Look out for discoloured water near the shore. A strong current can also pick up sand and sediment, leaving a noticeable jet of darker water near the shore. You might also be able to see the rip current picking up things like seaweed, forming a line of debris which moves steadily seaward. Finally rip currents are also common in areas with sand bars both surface and submerged , piers, jetties, groins, and anything else that sticks out from the beach that could catch a longshore current and cause it to start flowing away from shore.

Unfortunately, all this will do is tire you out and use up valuable energy. Even the strongest swimmer cannot swim against a rip tide, which at high speeds can pull you at 8-feet-per-second.

Unlike in television shows and films, rip tides do not actually pull you under - and while they can extend far out, they do eventually dissipate, most within feet of the shoreline. Get the attention of beachgoers and the lifeguard by waving your arms high in the air and yelling for help. Instead of swimming against the rip current, swim perpendicular to it, in either direction.

If wave activity is slight, several low rip currents can form, in various sizes and velocities. But in heavier wave action, fewer, more concentrated rip currents can form. Because rip currents move perpendicular to shore and can be very strong, beach swimmers need to be careful.

A person caught in a rip can be swept away from shore very quickly. Perhaps as a result, the ideological riff over how to survive the currents has been more public. Brander has worked with MacMahan and other prominent rip researchers around the world, but lately his studies have focused on something scholars ignored for decades: how swimmers caught in rips actually respond to the life or death terror of being pulled into deep water.

The results are not so clear-cut. Same for floating. Rips are a complex, dynamic hazard and the multitude of variables—swimming ability, current strength, circulation, wave size—make the threat nearly impossible to solve with one-size-fits-all advice. In the U. In the end, all any expert can do is promote public awareness of rips, MacMahan says. Until proven otherwise, we believe this is what we know. But changing policy is hard. Search Search. Rip currents kill more beachgoers each year than any other threat.

Time to relearn how to fight them. Twitter Icon. Stay at least feet away from piers and jetties. Permanent rip currents often exist along side these structures. Pay especially close attention to children and elderly when at the beach. Even in shallow water, wave action can cause loss of footing.

Get help from a lifeguard. If a lifeguard is not available, have someone call Throw the rip current victim something that floats--a lifejacket, a cooler, an inflatable ball. Yell instructions on how to escape. Remember, many people drown while trying to save someone else from a rip current.

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