Rip Current Safety Resources - national weather service

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This article is written about the rip currents, and how we can take safety precautions and avoid getting in any sort of danger involving the currents. This is a very important article that should be read by those who want to go swimming but don’t know when it is safe to go.
Rip Currents are basically when there are strong water flows going against shore, then inverting to each other and then going back out into the ocean / river again. This movement of the water drags swimmers into the water and can cause people to drown due due exhaustion from not being able to swim back to shore. Usually the Rip Current’s aren’t very visible, even if you know what to look for, sometimes they can be difficult to spot. More than 100 people in the US die from Rip Currents annually. The dangers of the Rip Current can only be countered if you have either read them before. Other than that only lifeguards can go and save you. People are working to spread the word of the Rip Currents to raise awareness that if you don’t know anything about the ocean you should just stay out of it. This way more deaths can be prevented.
What i found interesting about this article is the fact that it was something i had never heard about. Even though it’s very dangerous, it’s not well known, and i think that could be a problem to many people who just wanna have a fun day at the beach. Dangers like these should be taught more to people, so they can take precautions, and can be shown how to escape from them, in this case your swim to the end of where the current takes you then swim to the left then make a loop following the current so that you’re able to get near shore.
Something i have learned from this article is to always take precautions no matter what it is you’re doing. It may seem like something harmless, but there can be unknown dangers lurking around that you may not know about and so it’s safer to just stay out of harms way instead of risking yourself and seeing if you could escape after being caught in danger. In the future i’m going to try and always take as much precaution as possible to anything i’m new to for safety issues and if possible to set examples for others.

-Kevin Lin

Sources : http://www.outdoored.com/anm/templates/template1.aspx?articleid=1484&zoneid=17
March 27, 2005 - National Weather Service