If you get stuck in a rip current or rip tide, the trick is to not swim toward the beach against the current. You'll often lose. Swim perpendicular to the current (parallel to the beach) for a while, until you feel like you're not getting pulled out to sea any more. Then, swim with the waves back to the shore.
This is a major problem on the Great Lakes, too. Scary because I'm planning on taking a Lake Michigan swimming trip ASAP but I don't have anyone to come and swim with me this time :(
"Rip currents are formed when waves break near the shoreline, piling up water between the breaking waves and the beach. One of the ways that this water returns to sea is to form a rip current, a narrow jet of water moving swiftly offshore, roughly perpendicular to the shoreline. Rip currents can be found on many surf beaches every day. Rip currents most typically form at low spots or breaks in sandbars, and also near structures such as groins, jetties and piers. Rip currents can occur at any beach with breaking waves, including the Great Lakes."
yeah, it's also forecast to be particularly bad in Lake Superior this year because the surface water is 10-20 degrees warmer than usual. Good swimming, except for the whole drowning angle. Thanks for the links.
I find it interesting that so many swimming articles have been making the homepage lately. Sports is an unlikely topic for HN, given the nerd factor and all, but there are many topics in sports / training theory that are certainly 'gratifying my intellectual curiosity'. Would more articles about sports tech / physiology be appropriate? Discuss!
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[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 23.4 ms ] thread[1] http://www.seagrant.umn.edu/coastal_communities/rip
[2] http://www.seagrant.umn.edu/newsletter/2004/06/rip_currents_...
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"Rip currents are formed when waves break near the shoreline, piling up water between the breaking waves and the beach. One of the ways that this water returns to sea is to form a rip current, a narrow jet of water moving swiftly offshore, roughly perpendicular to the shoreline. Rip currents can be found on many surf beaches every day. Rip currents most typically form at low spots or breaks in sandbars, and also near structures such as groins, jetties and piers. Rip currents can occur at any beach with breaking waves, including the Great Lakes."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hCZuYzNujI