What is a rip current?
A rip current, also known as a rip, is a specific kind of water current that can occur near beaches with breaking waves. A rip is a strong, localized, and narrow current of water that moves directly away from the shore, cutting through the lines of breaking waves like a river running out to sea. A rip current is the strongest and fastest nearest the surface of the water. Rip currents can be hazardous to people in the water. Contrary to popular belief, rips cannot pull a person down and hold them under the water. A rip simply carries floating objects, including people, out to just beyond the zone of the breaking waves.
What causes a rip current?
A 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. This excess water will tend to flow back to the open water via the route of least resistance. When there is a local area that 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. Rip currents can occur wherever there is strong longshore variability in wave breaking. This variability may be caused by such features as sandbars, piers, and jetties. Rip currents may only occur at certain stages of the tide when the water is shallow enough to cause the waves to break over a sand bar. Rip currents are a common occurrence during high tide.
How can you identify a rip current?
Rip currents often look somewhat like a road or river running straight out to sea, and they are easiest to notice and identify when the zone of breaking waves is viewed from a high vantage point. The following are some visual characteristics that can be used to identify a rip:
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A noticeable break in the pattern of the waves — the water often looks flat at the rip, in contrast to the lines of breaking waves on either side of the rip.
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A "river" of foam — the surface of the rip sometimes looks foamy, because the current is carrying foam from the surf out to open water.
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Different color — the rip may differ in color from the surrounding water; it is often more opaque, cloudier, or muddier, and so, depending on the angle of the sun, the rip may show as darker or lighter than the surrounding water.
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It is sometimes possible to see that foam or floating debris on the surface of the rip is moving out, away from the shore. In contrast, in the surrounding areas of breaking waves floating objects and foam are being pushed towards the shore.
How to safely escape a rip current?
If you do get caught in a rip current, the best thing you can do is stay calm. Call and wave for help. You want to float, and you don't want to swim back to shore against the rip current because it will just tire you out. You want to swim out of the rip, parallel to the shore, along the beach, and then follow breaking waves back to shore at an angle.
Observational Logging Tasks: (Please walk down to the beach to complete these questions)
1. Use the provided website https://www.weather.gov/phi/surfrip7 to examine the rip current risk level in Bethany Beach. What risk level was present during your visit? Note: This forecast is only available from mid-May to the end of September. Please skip this logging task if you do not visit during these months.
2. Did you visit during high tide or low tide at the GZ? How did this affect the size of the waves?
3. What is seen in the water at Bethany that could stimulate rip currents? Hint: use information from the “What causes a rip current?” section in the description and your observations at the GZ to your advantage.
4. Is there any color variance in the surf? If so, what color is it?
5. Did you see a rip during your visit? If so, estimate the length that it extends out into the ocean.
6. As of June 2019, earthcaches contain photo logging tasks. Please provide a photo of yourself, your GPSr, or a personal item that proves that you have visited this site. Please post this in your log.
**For your safety, do not attempt to go into a rip current! These logging questions can be answered right from the beach**
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Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rip_current
https://oceantoday.noaa.gov/ripcurrentfeature/#:~:text=You%20want%20to%20swim%20out,or%20not%2C%20ask%20a%20lifeguard.
https://www.weather.gov/phi/surfrip7
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