How to survive beach rip currents?

Please watch: "UNSWTV: Entertaining your curiosity"
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Rip currents are by far the greatest hazard to beach swimmers.

This national award-winning video shows what rip currents are, how to spot and avoid rips, what to do if you get stuck in a rip, and it introduces you to some different types of rips.

A rip current is a strong, narrow and channelized flow of water flowing seaward from the shore. Rips can occur on any beach where waves are breaking across a wide surf zone.

They are often incorrectly called 'undertow' and 'rip tide' which are false. Also, rips do not pull you under the water and they are not a tide.

Rip currents typically flow faster than people can swim so it's important not to get stuck in them in the first place - always swim where there are lifeguards.

If you do get caught in a rip, don't swim against it.

Use your energy to stay afloat and signal for help by raising your arm whenever you can.

If no-one is around, slowly make your way to the side of the rip where the waves are breaking and it's shallower.

Overall you have to accept that you'll be taken a little further out to sea before you can get back to the beach.

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Correntes de retorno são, de longe o maior perigo para os nadadores de praia.

Este vídeo premiado nacional mostra o que rasgar correntes são, como identificar e evitar rasgos, o que fazer se você ficar preso em um rasgo, e apresenta-lhe alguns tipos diferentes de rasgos.

Uma corrente rip é um fluxo forte, estreito e canalizado de água que flui ao largo da costa. Rips pode ocorrer em qualquer praia onde as ondas estão quebrando através de uma zona de arrebentação de largura.
 
Eles são muitas vezes incorretamente chamado 'ressaca' e 'rasgão maré ", que são falsas. Além disso, rasgos não puxá-lo sob a água e eles não são uma maré.
 
correntes de retorno normalmente fluem mais rápido do que as pessoas podem nadar por isso é importante para não ficar preso neles em primeiro lugar - sempre nadar, onde há salva-vidas.

Se você ficar preso em um rasgo, não nadar contra ela.

Use sua energia para se manter à tona e sinalizar para obter ajuda, aumentando o seu braço sempre que puder.

Se ninguém está por perto, lentamente, fazer o seu caminho para o lado do rip onde as ondas estão quebrando e é mais raso.

Em geral, você tem que aceitar que você será levado um pouco mais para o mar antes de poder voltar para a praia.

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瑞普电流是迄今为止最大的危害海滩游泳。

这个全国获奖的视频显示了裂口电流，如何发现和避免裂缝，如果你被困在一个裂口做什么，并介绍了一些不同类型的RIP。

一个裂口目前是水流向海中从岸上一个强大的，狭窄的通道和流量。裂口可以在那里波在很宽的冲浪区违反任何海滩发生。
 
他们往往误称为'暗流'和'哧潮“，这是错误的。此外，撕裂不拉你下了水，他们是不是一个潮流。
 
瑞普电流通常流的速度比人们能游泳，因此重要的是不要停留在他们摆在首位 - 永远游泳那里有救生员。

如果你在一个裂口被逮住，不要游泳反对。

使用你的能量通过提高你的手臂时，你可以生存下去，并发出求救信号。

如果没人约，慢慢地用自己的方式，其中波打破裂口的一侧，它是浅。

总之，你必须接受，你会被带到远一点出海之前，你可以回到海滩。

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[UNSW]

Dr Rob Brander last night won Australia's top science prize, the Eureka, for his work on this Science of the Surf program. Well-deserved! Congratulations Rob.

[hakitup]

Now I'll be able to spot rip currents the next time I never go to the beach.

[danny]

i think everyone should know about these currents, specially the people who goes a lot to the beach, this is great information. My uncle died weeks ago because he was caught in a rip current and he didnt knew how to get out :(

[teeman]

"The main thing is not to panic, If you panic, you're gonna have a bad time"

That actually sounds hilarious

[WolfOfWestLondon]

I’m a really strong swimmer and I was caught in a rip current whilst swimming in Miami South Beach, November last year

After a few alcoholic beverages I thought it would be a good idea to swim out ‘until my feet didn’t touch the ground’ There were a few waves crashing about so I swam in the water which looked “calmer”. Then I thought it would be cool to go past the floating buoys and then turn back.

Then as I started trying to swim back I noticed I wasn’t getting any closer to shore and I was getting a LOT more tired than usual. There were no lifeguards on duty and I was so far out that I doubt anyone would’ve seen/ heard me even if I signalled for help.

Luckily I remember watching a couple of YouTube videos about rips and the main thing they said to do is NOT TO PANIC. So I took a deep breath, filled my lungs with oxygen and started to float on my back. Once I got my breath back, I started swimming horizontally to shore doing what I call the “octopus” stroke 😂😂

Took me around 15 minutes to get out of the rip and back to shore but it felt like a LIFETIME. (It didn’t help that I brushed alongside some jellyfish that I thought were deadly on the way back either)


The day after the ordeal there were extreme rip current warnings for Miami Beach and lifeguards weren’t letting anyone go further than knee deep..

I’m a very composed individual and even I was SURE I was going to die that day

Safe to say I won’t be drinking next time I go in the sea..

[HamCubes]

I almost drowned in a rip current and I was very strong swimmer. I was practicing pop-up alone my first time in the Pacific when I'd never, ever been in anything but a calm Méditerranéan and Palm Beach. I got caught, panicked cause my leggie snapped, tried to swim in, panicked again, and then somehow remembered my Philosophy Prof (How I resented having to take a Humanities class!) telling us about how he got caught, and finally remembered to swim parallèle after my arms got noodled.

[ignatiustse]

That was useful. I could never understand how to identify rips although I learnt early on as a kid to swim sideways to try and catch a wave back in.

[jesterjacobs]

I almost drowned in a rip current. I wish I was made aware of what to do before it was too late. I got swept about half a mile on a almost deserted beach in Thailand. While battling exhaustion I started to succumb to the power of the ocean. A wave crashed behind me and then I began choking on the saltwater. I knew I wasn't going to make it back. Incredibly, a bodyboarder must have heard me and came to my aid. After he got us back I was too shaken to thank him properly. I was seconds from death.

[Alek_FilmsTravel]

Great video! Very educational.
I was once caught in a rip current, off a Southern California coast.
At that time I had no idea what a rip was... so I tried to beat it (thinking it's the entire ocean "taking me away" to sea), and got quickly exhausted, as it happens in most cases. I yelled for help repeatedly, but to no avail; nobody could see me, or hear me, from the shore... I thought that was it... the end... but luckily (LUCKILY!) my friends did eventually hear me, and swam to the rescue!

[UNSW]

We'd love to do that. When we investigated this a while back we were told the airlines thought we'd turn away tourists if we showed them the dangers on our beaches. It makes much sense to us to prepare tourists.

[UNSW]

For those wondering about what an "undertow" is, here's the gold from Dr Rip himself, UNSW's Dr Rob Brander:
Undertow is a misleading term as it implies that the water (or rip) pulls you under. This isn’t the case at all. Rips just take you for a ride. Many scientists unfortunately continue to use the term ‘undertow’ to describe a gentle  return flow of water near the bottom bed that occurs everywhere underneath breaking waves, but this is not the same thing as a rip. We are trying to stamp out the use of ‘undertow’ because it is helps contribute to people panicking when they are caught in a rip. It’s just a bad and outdated term. Some people also confuse strong backwash on steep beaches as an undertow, but that process isn’t rips either.

[ask]

I am saddened by the regular loss of life. Having surfed the un patroled big breaks in WAs SW since the early 80s.
My experience tells me awareness, is the key to safety;
First, study the local weather beforehand.
Second, when at the beach, it really is worth sitting on a high point and observing the scenario in this video, most wise surfers do this.
Patience is part of good preparation. 20 - 30 minutes is perfect.
Please pay this forward.

[edwardschutz]

At age 18 I was body surfing at Surfers Paradise, Australia when I got caught in a rip. I knew about rips snd swimming to one There were also 2 others, big guys and good swimmers who had no idea and were becoming exhausted. I swam to them, explained what to do, and led them to one side when we quickly left the rip and easily got in. Thankedvsnd went on my way. That was 62 years ago.

[prutz]

I've lived on the Gold Coast for most of my life, and this the best vid I've seen that explains exactly what happens... I have seen so many tourists swept out, which always end up on the news. Please keep this education up, as it is often the first reference tourists will employ before they travel to OZ

[shootera]

Despite all the explanations, WHAT TO DO was still not well explained. Can you swim 50 feet? The widest rip currents are about 100 feet wide. So that means you need only swim 50'. Noticing quickly that you are in a rip is important. What you should do is CALMLY swim at a safe, moderate pace PERPENDICULAR to the direction you feel the current pulling you. This will usually be parallel to the beach.

[Bladerunner]

This is the best video that shows a rip! Thanks

[ramdas]

Probably the best short video on this out there.

[miklcct]

This is a very useful video. I've never seen rip currents in my area. There are seldom waves and usually as calm as in a pool.

[danwoywitka]

This is a great video, still not many that explain it properly and provide solid examples and overview.
Thanks!

[Octopussyist]

Why would this make you dislike the ocean??? This was simple, clear and exact information to make you know where you can have fun in the ocean, and where you cannot. I'd think, understanding the ocean a little better would make you love it even more.