Comments on: Rip tides: a cautionary tale http://eatourbrains.com/EoB/2007/06/08/rip-tides-a-cautionary-tale/ over 5 billion neurons served Sun, 06 May 2012 23:39:55 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Steven Gould http://eatourbrains.com/EoB/2007/06/08/rip-tides-a-cautionary-tale/comment-page-1/#comment-12397 Steven Gould Fri, 08 Jun 2007 18:36:06 +0000 http://eatourbrains.com/EoB/2007/06/08/rip-tides-a-cautionary-tale/#comment-12397 Riptides are caused by localized currents. Waves wash up onto a beach and then, usually because of some submerged topography, there is a place where the water drains back out at a much greater rate. When you look at a beach with a rip tide, there's often a place where the waves are not breaking to the same extent they are elsewhere. This can show you where the rip is. If caught in a rip, the most important thing you can do is swim parallel to the beach. This gets you out of the rip without fighting the current. As a diver, I routinely used rip tides to travel out to our offshore dive sites, but we certainly avoided them coming back in. Riptides are caused by localized currents. Waves wash up onto a beach and then, usually because of some submerged topography, there is a place where the water drains back out at a much greater rate.

When you look at a beach with a rip tide, there’s often a place where the waves are not breaking to the same extent they are elsewhere. This can show you where the rip is.

If caught in a rip, the most important thing you can do is swim parallel to the beach. This gets you out of the rip without fighting the current.

As a diver, I routinely used rip tides to travel out to our offshore dive sites, but we certainly avoided them coming back in.

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