Rip currents: how to spot one and how to escape

What a rip current is

When waves break, they push water up toward the beach. That water has to get back out to sea, and it doesn’t drain evenly along the shore. It finds the easiest path, like a gap between two sandbars or the side of a jetty, and pours out there in a narrow, fast stream. That’s a rip current: a channel of water that runs from the shoreline out through the surf zone and sometimes well beyond the breakers.

A few numbers from the United States Lifesaving Association (USLA) and NOAA:

• Speed. Rips usually move at 1 to 2 feet per second, but they’ve been clocked at 8 feet per second (about 2.4 m/s), faster than an Olympic swimmer. And the speed can jump quickly.
• Size. A typical rip is 50 to 100 feet wide and can run 100 yards or more offshore. Some are very narrow; others are more than 50 yards across.
• Waves. You don’t need big surf. Waves of 2 or 3 feet are enough.

Rips are the top hazard at surf beaches. A scientific review of data provided to the USLA attributes more than 100 deaths a year in the US to rip currents, and the USLA says rips account for more than 80% of the rescues made by surf beach lifeguards.

It pulls you out, not under

This is the myth that matters most. A rip current doesn’t drag you under the water. It carries you away from shore. The danger is what happens next: when the beach starts to slip away, almost everyone tries to swim straight back against the current, burns out in a few minutes and panics. Once you know a rip won’t pull you down, you have time to float and think.

It’s not a tidal current, either. Tidal currents are driven by the rise and fall of the tide and run hardest in inlets and channels. Rips are driven by waves. We cover the difference in our guide to tidal currents.

How to spot a rip from the beach

Before you go in, watch the water for a few minutes and look for the clues lifeguards teach:

Clue	What you see
A gap in the waves	A narrow strip where waves aren’t breaking, or break less, between areas of whitewater. It looks like the calmest spot to swim, which is why it fools people.
Darker or discolored water	A channel that’s darker or a different color from the water on either side.
Churning water	A channel of choppy, churning water.
Foam and debris heading out	A line of foam, seaweed or debris moving steadily seaward instead of washing up.

A few tips:

• Get up high. From a dune walkover, a boardwalk or a lifeguard stand, rips are much easier to see than from the waterline.
• Compare. Look for whatever is different from the rest of the beach: the gap in the breakers, the color, the foam.
• Don’t trust a clean-looking beach. You may see one clue, all of them or none. That’s why lifeguards say to assume rip currents are always present at surf beaches.

When and where rips are most likely

Rips can form at any beach with breaking waves, on all three US coasts and on the Great Lakes. But some places and times are riskier:

• At breaks in sandbars. Many beaches have a sandbar running parallel to the shore. Where the bar is cut, water rushes out. Storms reshape the bars, so a rip can move from one day to the next.
• Near low tide. NOAA says rips are usually strongest near low tide, although they can form at any time. At beaches with a big tidal range, it’s worth knowing when low tide falls.
• Next to jetties, groins, piers, reefs and rocks. Structures steer water offshore along their sides, and rips often sit there more or less permanently. The National Weather Service (NWS) advises staying at least 100 feet away from piers and jetties.
• On nice days after a storm. The worst days aren’t always the stormy ones. Rips often show up on the calm, sunny days that follow, when everyone wants to swim.

How to escape a rip current

First, notice it. You’re swimming toward the beach, but it isn’t getting closer, or it’s moving away. From there:

1. Don’t fight it. Swimming straight back is like running on a treadmill you can’t switch off. You tire out and get nowhere.
2. If you can stand, wade. The RNLI, which runs lifeguard and lifeboat services in the UK and Ireland, says to wade rather than swim while your feet touch bottom.
3. Float to catch your breath. The RNLI calls it Float to Live: tilt your head back with your ears underwater, spread your arms and legs, breathe slowly and move your hands and feet gently to stay up. It’s fine if your legs sink.
4. Get out to the side. Once your breathing is under control, swim parallel to the shore, or toward breaking waves, until you no longer feel the pull. Then angle back to the beach.
5. Signal for help. Face the shore, wave your arms and yell.

If you can’t swim out to the side, keep floating. A rip loses strength offshore, and some circle back toward the breakers. The key is not to spend all your energy early.

If you…	Do this
Can touch bottom	Wade sideways, then toward the beach
Are out of breath	Float on your back until your breathing settles
Feel in control	Swim parallel to the shore, then angle in
Can’t get out	Keep floating, face the shore, wave and yell

With a board, or in cold water

• If you’re on a surfboard or bodyboard, hang on to it. It keeps you afloat while you work your way out.
• In cold water, below about 59°F (15°C), the first shock takes your breath away. The RNLI says that effect passes in less than a minute, so don’t try to swim right away. Float first.

How to help without becoming a victim

Many people have died trying to rescue someone caught in a rip. The order matters:

1. Get a lifeguard if there is one. It’s the fastest help.
2. Call 911 if there’s no lifeguard. In the UK and Ireland, call 999 or 112 and ask for the Coastguard.
3. Throw them something that floats from a safe spot: a life jacket, a cooler, a ball.
4. Yell instructions. Tell them to float and to swim parallel to the shore.
5. Never go in without a flotation device. A drowning person can grab you and pull you down with them.

The mistakes people make most

• Picking the calm gap. Between two areas of breaking waves, the strip with no whitewater looks like the best place to swim, especially with kids. Often, that’s the rip.
• Counting on being a strong swimmer. The USLA warns that rips can sweep even the strongest swimmer away from shore. Swimming well helps you hold out, not outswim the current.
• Thinking small surf is safe. Waves of 2 or 3 feet are enough, and a rip’s speed can pick up suddenly.
• Waiting until you’re exhausted to call for help. Wave as soon as you realize you’re not making progress.
• Going in after someone empty-handed. That’s how one person in trouble turns into two.

Before you get in

• Swim at a lifeguarded beach, during lifeguard hours. The USLA puts the chance of drowning at a beach protected by USLA-affiliated lifeguards at about 1 in 18 million.
• Follow the flags. Our guide to beach warning flags explains what each color means in the US, the UK, Australia and Spain.
• Ask the lifeguard where the rips are today. They can show you how to spot and avoid them.
• Never swim alone, and keep kids within arm’s reach.
• Ocean swimming isn’t pool swimming. If you’re not used to surf, stay where you can stand.
• Leave inflatables on the sand when the wind blows offshore. It carries them out to sea.
• If in doubt, don’t go out.

At beaches abroad

The advice for escaping a rip is the same everywhere, but the systems around it change. In the UK and Ireland, most incidents handled by RNLI lifeguards involve rip currents. Lifeguards there set out red-and-yellow flags where it’s safer to swim in that day’s conditions, and swimming between them also makes you easier to spot if something goes wrong. In Spain, a green, yellow or red flag at the lifeguard post tells you whether swimming is allowed, and the emergency number, as across the European Union, is 112. Wherever you are, ask the lifeguard before you go in.

Rip current forecasts from the National Weather Service

Many NWS offices issue a surf zone forecast with a rip current risk for each stretch of beach. Here’s what each level means:

Risk	What it means
Low	The risk is low, but life-threatening rip currents often occur near groins, jetties, reefs and piers
Moderate	Life-threatening rip currents are possible in the surf zone
High	Life-threatening rip currents are likely in the surf zone

When the risk is moderate or high, NWS offices can also issue a Rip Current Statement. On the Great Lakes, several offices issue a swim risk instead of a rip current risk alone, and TidePlanet labels it that way.

On TidePlanet, US coastal places show that NWS risk for today and tomorrow on the Beach tab, with the stretch of beach it covers, when it was issued and a link to the official forecast. If a Rip Current Statement is in effect, that day shows as high, marked “statement in effect.” You can see it, for example, on the beach pages for Panama City Beach and Pensacola Beach. Out of season, many offices don’t issue a risk; then the line doesn’t appear, and you get our own estimate instead. Surfers get the same line on the Surf tab, along with the surf height the NWS expects at the shore.

Outside the US, and in the US when there’s no NWS risk, the Beach tab gives our own estimate of rip risk from the height and period of the waves reaching that shore, as low, moderate or high. It’s an approximation, because the wave forecast is for open water a few miles out. In the UK, for example, you’ll find it on the Perranporth beach page.

Use the forecast to choose where to go and how careful to be. But no forecast, ours included, can see the channel that opened this morning in front of your towel. When you get to the beach, look at the water, the flag and the lifeguard. They have the final say.