I am about going to the beach, and a lot of people are warning me to watch out for rip currents, but I don’t know why they occur or why they are so dangerous.
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All that water coming in from waves flows back to the ocean, but it doesn’t flow back out the way it comes in. Water will take the easiest path downward back to the ocean and when enough water is doing that it forms what amounts to a river. That river has all the water from those waves concentrated in one place, and it’s flowing the opposite direction of the waves out into the sea. This is a rip current – and it’s dangerous because of how strong it can get and how it can pull weak swimmers out into deep water fast. But if you are a good swimmer and get caught up in one, don’t panic, and swim parallel to the shoreline to get out of the ‘river’ and back into the water flowing towards the shore. And don’t ever use big floatation devices in the ocean, because those are much more likely to get caught in a current and impair your ability to swim.
EDIT: I incorrectly said “ripe tide” [which is a different but similar phenomenon](https://www.wboc.com/news/local/worcester/rip-currents-and-rip-tides-whats-the-difference/article_1c956c1d-1da1-50a4-9818-c48fef63fc03.html#:~:text=Rip%20currents%20are%20narrow%20currents,pulls%20out%20of%20an%20inlet).
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