Rip currents

Question

'Rip currents' not 'rip tides', as this report in today's NY Times confirms:
'Rip currents are often erroneously called riptides or undertow, but they are not caused by tidal action. And although waders knocked off their feet by rip currents may end up underwater, the currents themselves pull people along the surface, not down.

Usually rip currents are narrow. But sometimes, according to the National Weather Service, they can be hundreds of yards wide. And although they usually run out of steam just beyond the breakers, they may carry swimmers hundreds of yards offshore.'

Charles Riggs

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]'Rip currents' not 'rip tides', as this report in today's NY Times confirms: 'Rip currents are often erroneously called riptides ... And although they usually run out of steam just beyond the breakers, they may carry swimmers hundreds of yards offshore.'[/nq]
I have heard that people drown in rip currents because they panic, struggle against the current, get tired, and then can't stay above water. Supposedly, the thing to do is relax and allow the current to carry you away from shore until it peters out, swim parallel to the shore until you reach a spot where there is no rip, and then swim back in to shore.

Mike Nitabach

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]I have heard that people drown in rip currents because they panic, struggle against the current, get tired, and then ... to the shore until you reach a spot where there is no rip, and then swim back in to shore.[/nq]
In case you're not a very good swimmer, and if the beach has a lifeguard, you might consider just lying there and waiting for the lifeguard. There's a good chance that he saw the riptide* coming and was running to save you even before the wave grabbed you.
That happened to my son when he was five or so years old. A neighbor lady had taken a bunch of the neighborhood kids to the beach. She and the kids were playing in the shallow water when a riptide* knocked them all down. She had barely** stood up and started counting kids when the lifeguard walked out of the water carrying my son.

* About "riptide": Yeah, I know that's not strictly right. I saw the New York Times article, too. But everyone calls them riptides, so that's an acceptable common name for them.

A Juniper tree in Utah is called a cedar tree. It's the common name, so we can't say it's wrong. Same with "riptide"?
Come to think of it. maybe it was just an improbably large wave and not a riptide, although the neighbor lady was calling it a riptide at the time.
There's an article in today's Los Angeles Times about fatalities to rock fishermen on the Palos Verdes Peninsula 17 in the past two decades. The article says it's the occasional giant "rogue wave" that's the problem there, not riptides.
** Don't take "barely" wrong. She was properly attired for the non-nude beach.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]'Rip currents' not 'rip tides', as this report in today's ... the breakers, they may carry swimmers hundreds of yards offshore.'[/nq]
[nq:1]I have heard that people drown in rip currents because they panic, struggle against the current, get tired, and then ... until you reach a spot where there is no rip, and then swim back in to shore. Mike Nitabach[/nq]
You swin 90degrees to the currents direction and you will swin out of it.

Usenet · Answer

Michael Nitabach turpitued:
[nq:1]I have heard that people drown in rip currents because they panic, struggle against the current, get tired, and then ... to the shore until you reach a spot where there is no rip, and then swim back in to shore.[/nq]
That's a good theory if you happen to be a good swimmer. On one occasion when I was caught by the undertoad, I was so far out to sea by the time I was out of its influence that I wouldn't have had the strength to swim back. The only reason I'm alive today is that I was seen by a surfboard rider on the next beach. Even then my friends had to pump a lot of water out of me.

Since that time I've been extra-wary of deserted beaches.

Peter Moylan peter at ee dot newcastle dot edu dot au http://eepjm.newcastle.edu.au (OS/2 and eCS information and software)

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]'Rip currents' not 'rip tides', as this report in today's ... the breakers, they may carry swimmers hundreds of yards offshore.'[/nq]
[nq:1]I have heard that people drown in rip currents because they panic, struggle against the current, get tired, and then ... to the shore until you reach a spot where there is no rip, and then swim back in to shore.[/nq]
Exactly.
It happened to my sister once while she, the father, and I were swimming off the coast of Maryland at a point just over our heads. She panicked to the extent she started to fight us when we tried to help her. None of us drowned that day, but we could have.
Charles Riggs

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Michael Nitabach turpitued:[/nq]
[nq:2]I have heard that people drown in rip currents because ... is no rip, and then swim back in to shore.[/nq]
[nq:1]That's a good theory if you happen to be a good swimmer. On one occasion when I was caught by ... friends had to pump a lot of water out of me. Since that time I've been extra-wary of deserted beaches.[/nq]
Undertow is different from a rip current/riptide. Undertow is the water going out after goming in through wave action and takes you off shore.Riptide is a current that drags you along parallel to the beach.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]I have heard that people drown in rip currents because ... is no rip, and then swim back in to shore.[/nq]
[nq:1]In case you're not a very good swimmer, and if the beach has a lifeguard, you might consider just lying ... wave" that's the problem there, not riptides. ** Don't take "barely" wrong. She was properly attired for the non-nude beach.[/nq]
Here in Oz, we often just call it a rip.
Stupot

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]Michael Nitabach turpitued: That's a good theory if you happen ... me. Since that time I've been extra-wary of deserted beaches.[/nq]
[nq:1]Undertow is different from a rip current/riptide. Undertow is the water going out after goming in through wave action and takes you off shore.Riptide is a current that drags you along parallel to the beach.[/nq]
Seldom is there a current that drags you parallel to the beach, even though M-W says that undertow can do that. That direction is usually up to the swimmer to achieve. The real difference is in the "surface" versus "beneath the surface" aspect.
M-W Online:
Main Entry: un·der·tow
Pronunciation: -"tO
Function: noun

1 : the current beneath the surface that sets seaward or along the beachwhen waves are breaking upon the shore

2 : an underlying current, force, or tendency that is in opposition to whatis apparent
Main Entry: rip·tide
Pronunciation: 'rip-"tId
Function: noun
RIP CURRENT
Main Entry: rip current
Function: noun
a strong usually narrow surface current flowing outward from a shore that results from the return flow of waves and wind-driven water

Skitt (in Hayward, California)
www.geocities.com/opus731/

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]'Rip currents' not 'rip tides', as this report in today's NY Times confirms: 'Rip currents are often erroneously called riptides or undertow, but they are not caused by tidal action.[/nq]
Note that "riptide" is the older term (1862 vs. 1936) according to both MWCD11 and the OED. Though the L.A. Times has a "side-rip current" on 5/14/1919 and a bare "rip current" on 7/24/1928:

The expert swimmer does not fight against undertow, but waits until the force of the rip current is exhausted and then comes in on the inrushing waves, the experts explain. The inexpert becomes excited, fights against the outgoing force and is battered between that and the incoming waves, they state.
The subheading on that is "Experts Explain How to Battle Rip Tide".

"Undertow" is older still (1817).

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1501 Page Mill Road, 1U, MS 1141 >expensive now, wait until you seePalo Alto, CA 94304 >what it costs when it's free.

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