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Comment by donttrack | Hacker News Reader

What is the problem exactly with this "rip"? I often go swimming in the ocean although not in Australia.

This is fairly good [0]. Note that knowing the "swim parallel to the shore" advice is solid, but that doesn't stop it being seriously scary if you get caught. You still need to be a good swimmer and you can still panic.

I usually have a quick chat with a lifeguard if there is one, and/or check out what flag system they are using (usually pretty obvious like red/green but it can be different depending where you are). Research a beach on the internet for a few minutes before you go.

http://thevane.gawker.com/learn-how-to-identify-rip-currents...

Search for something like "dangers of rip tide" and do some reading as it may well save your life one day.

Thank you. I will read up on it.

Rip is where there is a current taking you out and people try to swim in against it, get exhausted and drown. The solution is to swim parallel to the shore until you get to beyond the rip

> The solution is to swim parallel to the shore until you get to beyond the rip

But how do you know when are out of the rip, so you'd know when to stop swimming parallel?

I've never been in that situation. I think I seen recommendations where you should swim diagonally toward the shore rather than parallel, maybe that's the logic there. The thing is that there is an current toward the shore on either side of a rip, maybe you can sense the change in pull? Rips only go out so far before the water recirculates back to shore.

When you're swimming parallel and not moving further away from the beach, you're no longer being ripped away from the beach.

If you're already 100 meters out, and there are some waves, are you really able to tell whether you're moving away from the shore or not?

The pull is pretty strong, and you can feel it pulling you out. When it's not pulling at you any more you can feel it. You can be quite a long way offshore before you're out of it.

You can't feel or see it much when you're just floating in the water. It's like the phenomenon of a complete lack of wind while riding in a hot air balloon: You're immersed in the fluid which is moving, so you feel no relative motion.

You can feel it easily if you can touch or swim down to the bottom. Also, it's often possible to see where the sand bars and reefs that are next to the rip are located either by seeing the color of the ocean floor or by seeing the waves breaking; get behind those and you'll be out of the rip.

Usually rips are only 10m wide. At special locations in the middle of a sandy beach, you can calculate, if you know the trick and angles.

As surfer we call them lift. They take you out for free, and then it's easy to step out, just as on a lift. But to a swimmer who has no idea they are usually deadly.

You can focus on some constant points, like the surf or some rocks, but usually it's easy to step out, and you feel it immediately.

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