Lots of good info about how to get out of rip currents in that thread. Obviously, rip currents are a real problem along the NC coast this summer. STAY SAFE everyone who is going to be at the NC Beaches!
Oops.
I'm also a very strong swimmer. I've been caught in rip tides a few times. Just don't panic. Just let the current take you and eventually you will find yourself able to swim to the side of it (parallel to the shore), then you can let the waves carry you back to the shore. You will almost definitely be in water well over your head at this point.
If you are not comfortable being in water over your head, you have no business getting in the ocean in water over your kneecaps.
It is worth one’s time to learn to recognize what a rip current looks like from shore. There presence can be detected visually by looking at the waters surface in reference to surrounding surf.
They also cut channels in any sandbars that surround them.
There is generally a rip about every 100 yards or so.
It is also good to know the procedure from swimming out of one, how to float on one’s back and how to swim on one’s back so that one may breath the entire time, because swimming in a current is incredibly exhausting.
Swimming in open water is nothing like swimming in a pool.
I have been at the OBX beaches this year and their are plenty of lifeguards and warnings about when rip currents are close in. I don’t know the story on these new drownings but some I know of earlier are swimmers going to areas where no lifeguards are posted and swimmers who disregard warnings.
However one sad case involved a mother and young child walking along along the beach where the waves were just running up knee deep or less, the child fell and the water swept her out into the deep quickly and she drowned.
I swim in this water every year. don’t go above your calves. if it is too rough, don’t go out. 3 in one day! will probably buy a PFD for my swims from now on
It’s not that difficult to actually see a rip current from the beach, they’re caused by sandbars out beyond the breakers having a very narrow channel then water rushes through and out to sea. If a given section of surf looks odd, waves behaving in a manner that is different from adjacent sections and the water looks churned up or particularly murky don’t go into the water there.
Even shore birds will give you a clue, there are often more of them circling above a rip current. Often more over sharks or blues too, for that matter, hoping a bite of whatever they’re having will float to the surface.
I learned the Outer Banks in the mid 70’s. I was a good swimmer.
It will kick your ass. Be careful out there.