The 'neck' is where the flow is most rapid. Water that has been pushed up near the beach flows along the shore towards the outgoing rip as 'feeder currents', and then the excess water flows out at a right angle to the beach, in a tight current called the 'neck' of the rip. When there is a local area which is slightly deeper, or a break in an offshore sand bar or reef, this can allow water to flow offshore more easily, and this will initiate a rip current through that gap. This excess water will tend to flow back to the open water via the route of least resistance. A rip simply carries floating objects, including people, out to just beyond the zone of the breaking waves, at which point the current dissipates and releases everything it is carrying.Ī rip current forms because wind and breaking waves push surface water towards the land, and this causes a slight rise in the water level along the shore. Contrary to popular belief, neither rip nor undertow can pull a person down and hold them under the water. Because of these factors, rip currents are the leading cause of rescues by lifeguards at beaches, and in the United States, they are the cause of an average of 46 deaths by drowning per year.Ī rip current is not the same thing as undertow, although some people use the term incorrectly when they are talking about a rip current.

Swimmers who are caught in a rip current and who do not understand what is happening, or who may not have the necessary water skills, may panic, or they may exhaust themselves by trying to swim directly against the flow of water. Rip currents can be hazardous to people in the water. A rip current is strongest and fastest nearest the surface of the water. A rip is a strong, localized, and narrow current of water which moves directly away from the shore, cutting through the lines of breaking waves like a river running out to sea. Breaking waves cross a sand bar off the shore the pushed-in water can most easily travel back out to sea through a gap in the sand bar this flow creates a fast-moving rip current.Ī rip current, often simply called a rip (or misleadingly a rip tide), is a specific kind of water current that can occur near beaches with breaking waves. As seen from above, this shows how a rip current works.

Rip meaning