What is the name of the phenomenon of being pulled into the sea? Underwater currents in coastal waters (Rip current). How to know if you can swim

Sometimes the danger is so close that you don’t even suspect it. This is exactly what can be said about the most dangerous current, which is called a rip current. It is this that most often takes the lives of people who seem to know how to swim; moreover, such currents occur right off the coast. According to rescuers, they are the cause of most accidents.

A current that can carry away even experienced swimmers

Rips are also called rip currents or rip currents. Because of them, a person can end up in the sea in just a few seconds! Most often, tugs appear where you don’t expect them at all: on shallow beaches with a gently sloping low-lying shore and sandy spits, both in the ocean and in the sea.

And so an unsuspecting person rejoices in the sea and the sun, splashing in the water, when suddenly an unknown force begins to drag him away from the shore. Of course, the first reaction is to row to shore. The swimmer rows hard, but does not approach the coast even an inch. But fighting the sea is not an easy task, and even experienced swimmers run out of strength after a few minutes.

Surprise of appearance

Rip currents usually appear spontaneously. The main reason for their appearance is large masses of water that have accumulated in shallow water. They go out to sea along a peculiar trajectory: not in a wide front, but as if along a trench, somewhat reminiscent of a river that heads far out to sea. The wider this trench is (and it can be from 3 to 20 meters wide), the higher the flow speed will be (up to 3 m/s). And such a flow can take with it not only a child, but even a heavyweight.

How to calculate rip current

In fact, it is quite simple to understand whether there is a rip current. And here are the main signs:

• a gap of up to 5-10 meters is visible in the surf line (in in rare cases up to 50 meters);
• if waves encounter the shore with identical foam caps, but in one area there are no such waves, this is the same rip current;
• a real river has appeared near the shore, bubbling and seething, and in it floats various organic debris that carries from the shore;
• a path of water of a different color, which differs from the general sea expanse of a homogeneous sea (that is, for example, the entire sea is turquoise, but there is a white path).

How to get out of a rip

But still, if by chance the rip current could not be seen in advance and you are already being carried out to the open sea, what to do then?

Firstly, do not panic and even relax, let the current carry you out to sea. In most cases, people start rowing against the current, and this is the biggest mistake. Moreover, it will not carry you far: 100-150 meters, no more. And it is not capable of dragging you under water, since the rip is at the very surface. Therefore, it is better to spend the saved energy on the way back to the shore. As the current begins to weaken, you need to swim to the shore, but strictly perpendicular to the current, and after swimming a hundred meters away from it, you can safely return to the shore. Why to the side, you ask? Because there is a possibility that the current will return to the same place.

Well, if it happened that the width of the current was very large and it dragged you too far into the sea, and your strength was running out, then the only option was to wait for rescuers. To do this, it is better to lie on your back and raise one arm, since in this position you can relax and stay on the water longer. Well, a raised hand will be a kind of beacon for rescuers.

Basic rules of conduct on the beach

And, of course, you must always remember about safety and:

choose beaches where there are lifeguards;

don't swim alone, especially on wild beaches;

do not swim at night;

do not swim in the narrow straits between the islands and spits;

Do not leave children unattended in the water.

And yes, on banks where rip currents occur there are usually rip current warning signs and red flags.

In such cases, you need to be extremely careful or not enter the water at all.

Take care of yourself and your loved ones!

In English, a rip current is called "RIP CURRENT", not unreasonably hinting at the sad abbreviation R.I.P. (Reast in peace - rest in peace). Indeed, many tragic incidents are associated with rip currents.

A rip current is a strong and narrow stream of water that rushes from the shore into the sea. The speed of water movement in a rip current can reach 2.5 meters per second - not a single swimmer can cope with such a current.

A rip current is formed when waves and wind drive a lot of water to the shore - it flows along coastline until it finds a way out back into the sea (or lake - rip currents are found on lakes too).

The highest speed of water movement is on the surface of the rip current. Therefore, it extinguishes the waves going to the shore and from the outside it looks like a completely calm water surface. Rip currents occur especially often when strong winds blow ashore or a hurricane rages far from the coast.

Rip currents are very dangerous - in the USA they claim 46 lives annually, 80% of all coastal search operations are associated with rip currents. Their main danger is that a person, caught in a rip current, sees that he is being carried far out to sea and tries to swim against the current - to the shore. Unable to cope with the current, the swimmer becomes exhausted and drowns. Therefore, the main rule of salvation for those caught in a rip current is as follows.

You need to swim not to the shore, but parallel to the shore. This current resembles a treadmill - to stop running, just take a step to the side. But getting out of it is not easy—sometimes you need to swim dozens of meters along the shore.

How to determine a rip current?

From the outside, a rip current may look like a break in the coastal waves with suspiciously calm water. Or like a wide channel of choppy water perpendicular to the shoreline. Or like a stripe of water that stands out in color, on the surface of which foam, algae and bubbles quickly float.

A reverse (or rip) current is a spontaneously occurring sea coastal current perpendicular to the coastline. It usually occurs during low tide in places where there are sand bars, reefs or shoals near the shore. Because of them, the water cannot return to the sea evenly, so the main flow rushes at high speed into the strait between the obstacles and fades away immediately behind them. As a result, a strong current is formed that can instantly carry a person several tens of meters from the shore. The width of the current varies from 3 to 50 meters, and the speed of the water flow in it is from 2 km/h to 20 km/h.

Why is it dangerous?

According to statistics, more than 80% of deaths of swimmers on sea and ocean beaches occur precisely because of reverse currents. The main danger of such a current is that it occurs very close to the shore - where no one expects danger. You can stand in the water a couple of meters from the edge and suddenly find yourself caught in a strong current. Taken by surprise, the victims try to struggle and row towards the shore. However, doing this is practically useless; the person simply becomes exhausted and dies. In addition, those who do not know how to swim usually splash near the shore.

Where can he be found?

A reverse current can occur where there is surf: mainly in the seas and oceans, but it also occurs in large lakes. Strong rip currents most often occur in places where there are breakwaters, dams, reefs, coastal islands, spits and shoals. If you're going on vacation where surfers like to hang out, you're likely to see rip currents.

How to recognize it?

With reverse flow you can usually notice:

• a strip of rushing water perpendicular to the shore;
• an area of ​​water near the shore that differs in color from the rest of the water surface;
• foam quickly floating away from the shore into the sea;
• There are waves along the entire coast, but in one area several meters wide there are none.

If you are planning to spend time abroad, remember the phrase rip currents and do not go into the water where you see it on flags and signs.

What to do if you get caught in a rip current?

If you feel like you are being dragged into the sea, try to shout or signal to others so that they notify the rescuers. Don't panic and never row against the current. Instead, try swimming parallel to the shore: if the current is not very strong, you will most likely be able to get out of it quickly. If you can’t swim out of the current, then save your energy and swim forward with the current. It will weaken quite quickly, and then you can swim to the side and then return to shore.

How scary! Maybe it’s better not to go into the water at all?

In fact, everything is not so scary if you know how the reverse flow works. Firstly, only the top layer of water moves quickly, which means it won’t drag you to the bottom and won’t overwhelm you with a wave. Secondly, the width of the current, as a rule, does not exceed 20 meters, which means that you can try to get out of it by swimming quite a bit along the shore. And finally, the length of such a current is not very long: it will not drag you further than 100 meters. If you swim where there are lifeguards, they will get to you in a couple of minutes.

Last time I wrote about the Taj Mahal, which is located in Agra (see), but now it is a very serious topic and if you are going to relax on the sea coast, be sure to read it to the end. We will talk about such a phenomenon as rip. What it is?

Surely many have heard about how one of the tourists drowned in the sea or ocean, and some were even eyewitnesses of such tragedies. During the six months that I lived in Varkala (India), six people drowned in this way, and everything happened not somewhere in the open sea, but not far from the shore.

What all these cases have in common is that almost all of them were good swimmers and managed well in the water. The tragedy is that none of them knew about such a phenomenon as rip - rip current in English.

So, this is a rip or rip current. To understand how to deal with it and what to do, you need to understand what it is and how it arises.

What is rip

Rip currents - rips - are currents that arise in shallow water, perpendicular and back to the shore. The waves rush towards the shore, but large masses do not have time to return back, and in different places in the sandy bottom, under the pressure of water, channels appear, along which the water flows back into the sea.

That is, rips are formed in cases where strong water pressure appears on the shore, a rapid appears and water rushes from the shore at high speed - 3.0 m/sec, a kind of temporary river on the seashore.

This can be seen schematically in the picture:

This is what the river looks like:

Rip currents are not constant, they can appear in different places, and after some time, disappear without a trace.

They vary in width and length. Sometimes these are narrow corridors 2-3 meters wide, but sometimes such a river reaches 100 meters. The length of rips is very rarely more than 300-400 meters.

People who have lived on the coast for a long time already know how to determine the occurrence of another rip by external signs. The water in them differs in color from other areas; if on both sides it is blue or green, in the area of ​​the rip current it may be whitish and foaming.

It is also possible to see how the waves hit the shore everywhere, but in some one place it is calm, most often this is the place of the rip current.

Tourists are another matter; some have not even heard of such a dangerous natural phenomenon, and they, especially those who are poor swimmers, try to enter the water in places that are “calm” at first glance. They also expose themselves to danger, since even if they go waist-deep into the water, they can get caught in a powerful stream that will pull them into the open sea.

What to do if you get into a rip?

But now the most important thing. Experienced people have fallen into a rip current and escaped safely because they knew how to get out of it correctly.

These rules are the most important when swimming; in my personal opinion, such reminders should be distributed by tour operators sending people on sea holidays.

I would also advise you not to swim in the sea-ocean alone, try to go ashore with one of your friends or fellow travelers. If you are going alone, choose not a deserted place, but one where there is at least someone on the shore.

Where do rips often occur?

Judging by information from the Internet, rip currents most often appear in the Mediterranean Sea, especially off the coast of Israel and North Africa. There are small rips in the Azov and Black Seas.

But most often they write about rip currents in Indian Ocean, it seems to me that I observed exactly the rip in Varkala. They often visit Goa and every year one of the tourists drowns there.

Rip currents are also frequent in Sri Lanka and Indonesia, often mentioned, perhaps because there are more tourists there, because if no one drowned, then they don’t even remember about the dangerous rip current, however, you definitely need to know about it.

If your friends are going on a sea holiday, be sure to share this information with them, perhaps you will save their life.

The video about rips is in English, but it seems to me that everything in it is clear without words.

There are enough sunny days, long rains can fall at night, and short showers can occur during the day for half an hour to an hour. In the summer, as in any other month of the year, cyclones occur, when for several days the sky is overcast and sometimes it drizzles. This is a brief theory of weather forecast for any year; you can only learn more accurate data through practice.

Few of the guests of the island of Phuket think about the waves on the sea that the western monsoons bring with them. It is in May that the wind direction changes, which is why the sea ceases to be calm on popular beaches. If you like to splash in the waves, then you need to know that in Phuket the waves can be much larger than those in which you are used to swimming. A real surfer's paradise opens its doors between May and October. Professional surfers know the basics of water safety, but those who like to sunbathe and swim need to be explained, which is what I will do today.

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The rainy season is dangerous not because of the rain, but because of the waves combined with rip currents, which cause dozens of people to drown every year. Even a master of sports in swimming does not always know how to act in such a situation. The sea and ocean are very different from the lakes and rivers we are used to. Tidal waves roll onto the shore and then go back out to sea, forming a rip current. This phenomenon is also called a draft wave; it can be found in the Azov and Black Seas. With each breaking wave, a mass of water is formed near the shore, which collects in a channel and goes back to the sea. The speed of the reverse current can be up to 2-3 meters per second. If a person falls into such a dangerous channel, he will instantly be carried out to sea, despite all the efforts made.

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There are several types of rip currents in Phuket. Some exist in any month, in any season, on any beach. Others vary in time and space and are noticeable on deeper beaches or in isolated parts of beaches. Their danger increases with the arrival of monsoon winds, when waves appear on the sea and spontaneous and unpredictable rip currents form. Such reverse currents are especially pronounced on the beaches of Karon, Surin, Bangtao,.

What to do in a situation if you feel like you are in a backflow channel?

1. No need to panic and swim to shore
This is the main mistake that people make when they find themselves in a reverse current. Frightened by the behavior of the sea, many begin to row with all their might towards the shore and lose strength. Seeing that nothing is working out, people fall into panic, which is not the best friend of sober decisions. Remember that rip currents are a mass of water on the surface that rushes back into the ocean, it does not form funnels or eddies and will not drag you to the bottom.

2. Wave your arms
Raise your hand and wave, this will attract the attention of people and lifeguards if they are on duty at the beach.

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3. Swim parallel to the shore
To get out of the rip current, you need to swim along the shore. The channel itself is usually 5-20 meters long, the maximum width of the reverse current can be up to 50 meters, but it is easy to get out of it if you swim parallel to the shore.

4. Keep your head above water
All you have to do in a situation like this is keep your head above water and swim out of the rip current. You will be able to feel that you have got out of the channel, then the waves themselves will begin to carry you to the shore.

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How to find out the return flow channel?

Rip current currents spontaneously appear in different places and disappear during the day. Recognizing them is not always easy, but it is possible. Sometimes gaps of several meters are noticeable in the strip of oncoming waves, or the waves tend to one point on the shore, and between them there is a noticeable section of water moving perpendicularly from the shore into the sea. Such a channel may vary in color and uniformity. For example, contain a suspension of sand, foam and bubbles or boiling water.

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Safety precautions when swimming

Be sure to pay attention to the color of the flags on the beach. A green flag indicates a calm sea and safe swimming conditions. A yellow flag indicates some danger when swimming, do not swim alone in this case. The red flag warns of danger that swimming is strictly prohibited. Two red and yellow flags mark the area between them where it is safe to swim, and lifeguards are on duty. And a black and white flag with four cells indicates the possibility of surfing and jet skiing in this section of the beach, but warns of the dangers of ordinary swimming.

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An involuntary question arises: what to do if there is a red flag on our beach all the time? Under no circumstances should you show your courage and go into the water. Do not swim at night or while intoxicated. For relaxation and swimming, choose beaches without waves or with a gentle slope. It never happens big waves, they crash on a coral reef far from the shore. In the south of Phuket - the beaches of Cape Panwa, Ao Yon - in Coral Bay and Trai Trang near Patong there are no waves, but low tides are pronounced, but you can swim at high tide every day. On Kata Beach, where the entry into the sea is relatively flat, during the monsoon season the waves are not as big as on deeper beaches. On Nai Harn Beach you can swim in the bay in the very south. All year round you can swim on the beaches of the islands on the east side of Phuket: Bon, Lon, Khe, Yao Yai, Yao Noi, Maprao, Rang Yai, Khai Nok, Naka Yai and others. Due to monsoons and waves, the Similan Islands are closed from May 1 to November 1, but all other excursions are open. Have a nice holiday!