The way out of a rip is sideways
Swimming for the beach is what wears people out in a rip. How to float, signal and swim across the pull, and how to choose where you swim.
Drawn from swimmers, surfers, river paddlers and people who were caught in rips and got out, then checked against the US National Weather Service, the RNLI, HM Coastguard and the Met Office — and where people’s experience and the authorities differed, it is the authorities' wording you are reading.
You are swimming toward the beach and the beach is getting further away. Your arms are working, you are a decent swimmer, and it makes no difference. The water around you may even look calmer than the water on either side. That is what a rip current feels like from inside it. One person notes it can arrive after hours of safe swimming. And the instinct it sets off — swim harder, straight for the sand — is the one that wears people out in the water.
If the water is carrying you away from the beach, do not swim straight back against it: swim sideways, along the shore, or float on your back and breathe until you can.
Why the beach is the wrong direction
A rip current is a narrow, fast channel of water running out from the beach through the breaking waves. The US National Weather Service says they usually move at one to two feet a second and can reach eight, and NOAA puts the top speed as faster than an Olympic swimmer. Some people put the mechanism another way: water is heavy — a cubic metre of it weighs a tonne — and you do not out-push it. Swimming straight back is a race you lose, and it costs you the strength you will need at the edge of the channel, where one person points out the waves are rougher and you still have to get through them.
Two things it does not do, and one person says knowing how rips work is what keeps the panic down. It does not pull you under. The weather service says it plainly, and one person here corrected themselves to say the same: the sinking comes from panic and exhaustion, not from the current. And it does not carry you out to sea for ever. It is a channel through the sandbar, and it weakens where the waves break or not far beyond — though near piers, jetties and, one person adds, headlands, it can run further out. People call it a riptide; the weather service says it is not a tide, though the tide can change how strong it is, and some rips run fastest near low tide.
This is not only a weak swimmer’s problem. Some people say even strong and competitive swimmers can be overwhelmed when conditions change — a current, cold water, clothes — and two say people overestimate what they can do outside a pool. Some people point out that trained military swimmers have drowned in rips. One person calls fear the real danger, even for trained lifeguards: it drains strength, switches off clear thinking, and makes people panic or freeze. The US Lifesaving Association, quoted by the weather service, estimates more than a hundred rip-current deaths a year in the United States. NOAA also says lifeguards rescue tens of thousands of people from rips there every year — which is the other half of the picture: people get out.
Sideways now, or float first
The US and UK lifesaving advice agree on the direction and differ on where to start.
The US National Weather Service: relax, because rip currents do not pull you under. Do not swim against the current. Swim out of it — following the shoreline — and then in to shore at an angle. If you cannot get out, float or tread water. If you need help, yell or wave.
The UK’s RNLI: do not swim against it, or you will get exhausted. Stay with your board if you have one, or float if you do not: tip your head back with your ears in the water, try to breathe normally, use your hands and legs to help you stay up, and do not worry if your legs sink. If you can stand, wade, do not swim. If you can, wade or swim parallel to the shore until you are free of the rip, then head for shore. And always raise your hand and shout for help.
People have the same argument, one person against one: swim sideways the moment you feel it, or float first and swim later. The decider they give is the one to use: how much energy you have, and how strong the pull is. So it is your judgement, made in the water:
- If you still have your breath and you swim well, swim across the pull now, at a pace you could keep up. One person warns that an all-out sprint sideways can exhaust you as surely as swimming for the beach.
- If you are tired, frightened, cold, or not a strong swimmer, float first. Floating costs almost nothing, keeps your mouth up, and buys time — for the panic to pass, for the current to ease, for someone to see you. One former lifeguard’s point is that the swim-sideways advice assumes you have the stamina for it. Then swim across when you can.
Floating keeps you alive; it will not always bring you back. One person says some rips curve round toward the beach, so floating can carry you back in. Another answers that not every rip does, so keep watching where the waves are breaking. You are out of it when waves are breaking around you again and pushing you toward the beach. Go sideways first, until you no longer feel the pull, and only then angle in — some people explain that a diagonal is for after the pull has stopped, not instead of getting out of it.
The honest part. People who were caught and got out describe it as far harder than the advice made it sound, with waves keeping their heads under and exhaustion setting in. Some people add the move for when a wave has you tumbling and you have lost which way is up: stop fighting, hold your breath, let the water let you go, come up, and then signal. Keep a hand up and keep shouting. One person’s account is of a lifeguard who was slow to respond, so keep floating and keep signalling until someone comes.
Before you go in
The rest of the job is choosing where you swim.
- Swim at a beach with lifeguards, between their flags. Some people say it, and one person, writing about Australian beaches, explains why: the flags are placed where the water is safest and the guards are watching. In the UK, the RNLI’s red-and-yellow flags mark that patrolled stretch.
- Stay out when a red flag is up. In the UK, a red flag means do not go in. At US beaches that use warning flags, a red flag means high hazard — strong surf or currents — and two red flags mean the water is closed. The weather service warns that flags are not used everywhere and their meanings vary between areas, so ask the lifeguard what the flags mean on that beach, and where the rips are that day. A yellow flag, one caution adds, is not a day for a weak swimmer.
- If the people who live there are not swimming in a spot, there is a reason, one person says.
- Keep away from where the surfers paddle out. Some people explain why: surfers use rips as a ride out past the breaking waves. One person adds that lifeguards use them the same way, to reach swimmers fast.
- Look before you go in, from somewhere high — a dune or the top of the beach access, NOAA says. The calm-looking gap where the waves are not breaking is often the rip, some people warn, not a safe patch; one person’s rule is to play in the white water, not the smooth dark gap beside it. NOAA’s signs: a channel of churning, choppy water; water a different colour from around it; a line of foam, seaweed or debris moving out to sea; a break in the incoming wave pattern. One person adds a tell from inside the water: the sand pulling out from under you, or the water dropping suddenly from your waist to your shins as a set of waves goes out.
- Treat the signs as a help, not a guarantee. The people who describe the calm gap say the signs are not always obvious. One person warns that on steep beaches, where the bottom drops away quickly, rips are harder to see and more dangerous; one person adds that standing waist-deep on a steep beach to test for a rip can overwhelm an inexperienced swimmer quickly. Not seeing a rip is not proof there isn’t one.
- Swim with someone, and least of all alone where there are no lifeguards. One person’s own rule: if the waves look higher than about four feet and there are no lifeguards and no other swimmers, stay out.
- In the United States, check the National Weather Service surf zone forecast for the coast before you go. And the sea is not the only place: one person reminds readers that the Great Lakes have rip currents too.
If you cannot swim well
Then “swim sideways” is not your plan, and this page is not asking you to make it one. Your plan is to stay where you can stand. The weather service says you should be a strong swimmer before you go into the ocean or the Great Lakes, and that a pool is not the same as a surf beach. One caution says do not go into the surf at all if you cannot swim, and get lessons first. One person’s rule for anyone who has never learned to escape a rip is to stay no deeper than their knees. If you are ever carried out anyway, the float and the raised hand are your whole job: the RNLI’s floating advice is written for anyone in trouble in the water, and it needs no swimming stroke.
If you are on the sand watching somebody else caught, this page is not for you either — the question below on going in after them, and the page Drowning is quiet, are. And if you are in a river rather than the sea, the rule changes; it is the third question below.
The beach you were swimming toward is still there when the pull lets go. The way back to it starts sideways.
Common questions
What if I end up in the water in my clothes?
Float first, and keep still. The research behind the RNLI's floating advice says the air trapped in your clothes as you go in helps you float, and that thrashing and swimming hard is what lets it escape. If the water is cold, the first minute or so brings a gasp you cannot control; the UK's RNLI says the first effects pass in less than a minute, so do not try to swim straight away: lean back, float, and control your breathing until it passes. Only then think about swimming. Wet clothes, as some people put it, feel like chains, and some people name denim, cargo shorts, whose pockets drag, and boots as the worst of it. One person explains why: under water, soaked cloth weighs very little, because it is surrounded by water. What slows you is drag and clothes that stop your arms and legs moving. The weight arrives the moment you try to climb out. If you are going in on purpose, one person warns take off your shoes and anything heavy first. The tricks you may have heard of — taking your clothes off while treading water, or tying the legs of your trousers and filling them with air to make a float — are real skills — people say military, lifesaving and some school courses teach them — and some people describe the trouser float. Some people put it plainly: a trouser float is a last resort, far less steady than a real flotation device. The people who describe it do not even agree on how to hold it: tied at the ankles and ridden, or wrapped round the neck. These are things to learn in a pool with someone who teaches them, not to try for the first time in the sea. One person adds that practising in a warm, still pool is not the same as cold, moving water. And if you are dressing for a day on or by cold water, cotton holds water and cold against you; wool and some synthetics keep more of their warmth when wet — there is a page here, *What actually keeps you warm outside*, on that.
Does a life jacket make me safe?
It makes you far safer, and it is not the same as being safe. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say life jackets reduce the risk of drowning while boating for people of all ages and swimming abilities. People who boat and paddle add the reasons. One person points out that a good swimmer can be knocked out by the boat itself, and then swimming ability counts for nothing. Another says to dress for a boat as if you are going into the water at the worst possible spot. Being towed behind a boat, or far from shore, some people say, a life jacket is not up for negotiation, and one person's rule is to wear one whenever you cannot touch the bottom or there is any current at all. Some people add that a sport vest built for paddling and a life jacket built for survival are different things; read the label for what it is designed to do. Two honest limits. One person nearly drowned wearing a life jacket in very big surf, because the breaking waves held them under and kept turning them over. And one person notes a life jacket keeps you bobbing, which can make swimming against a current harder — it is still what keeps you up while you wait. For children: water wings and inflatable toys are not safety equipment. The CDC says foam and air-filled toys are not safety devices; people add that water wings slip off, can deflate, and can tip a child's head down into the water. One person prefers a foam children's life jacket, and one person warns even that is not a babysitter: a child in the water still needs an adult watching, close by. The page *Drowning is quiet* covers watching children in water.
What if it is a river, not the sea?
Then the rule is different, and it is about your feet. People who paddle rivers give one warning: in fast water, do not put your feet down on the bottom while the current is pushing you downstream. Your foot can wedge under a rock or between stones, the current pushes you down and holds you there, and a life jacket does not save you from that. The US National Park Service gives the same rule: if you are swept into fast-moving water, do not try to stand up; lie on your back with your feet pointing downstream and your toes up at the surface, and use your feet to push off rocks, looking downstream — toes up, as one person here puts it. Before rivers or large lakes, some people say, read up on moving-water safety, and one person warns leave whitewater alone until an experienced paddler has shown you the basics.
Someone else is caught. Should I go in after them?
Not without something that floats, and not first. Some people say the same thing about going in to rescue: without training, it can end with two people in trouble instead of one. The US weather service puts it bluntly: “Many people have died trying to rescue someone caught in a rip current.” So: get the lifeguard, throw the person anything that floats, and shout to them to float on their back — HM Coastguard tells callers to have the person in the water float on their back with arms and legs out. Call 911 in the United States, or 999 or 112 in the UK and ask for the Coastguard; elsewhere, your local emergency number. Tell them what you saw, where, and when. The US and UK authorities are plain about the next part: the weather service says do not attempt a rescue on your own, and HM Coastguard tells people on the shore not to go into the water. If you are a strong swimmer and there is truly no other way, some people say strip off and take something that floats with you, so the person grabs the float and not you; that is their judgement, not the authorities'. The page *Drowning is quiet* is written for this moment: what a person who is drowning actually looks like, and how to help without drowning too.
I got out. Why do I still feel like this?
Because it was frightening, and the body remembers. People who were caught and got out describe it as harder than they expected, with exhaustion, panic and the feeling of nearly dying — and for some, a fear of deep water that stayed. One warning sets a limit for anyone who has nearly drowned or fears deep water, no deeper than the waist; a limit you set for yourself after something like that is yours to keep. The people who came through it credit a surfboard to hold onto, a lifeguard who reached them, or floating calmly instead of fighting. Some people say floating on your back is a skill standard swimming lessons often skip, and one person says the lessons worth having teach what to do when you panic, not only strokes — if you want the water back, that is a place to start. One thing not to skip: anyone who went under, or came out coughing or struggling to breathe, should see a doctor the same day, even if they feel fine. *Drowning is quiet* has the signs that mean emergency care.
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