Make sure you're safe around rip currents

Rip currents are channelized currents of water that flow away from the beach shore out into the gulf or ocean.

They're formed when waves break near the shoreline, piling up water along the shore. The water seeks to escape from the shoreline area and return back offshore. This sometimes results in a narrow stream of water that moves quickly offshore ... a rip current. People sometimes call these currents "undertows" or "riptides," but those terms are not correct and should not be used when talking about rip currents.

Rip currents pull people out to sea, not under.

Rip currents can be as narrow as 10 to 20 feet or as much as 10 times wider than that. Sometimes the water in rip currents can travel very slowly, almost unnoticeable. At other times these currents can flow at speeds of more than 5 miles per hour, faster than an Olympic swimmer can swim.

If you're caught in a rip current, first, don't panic, and don't try to swim against the current. Rip currents generally only go out a short ways offshore, then pan out. It's sort of like being caught on a treadmill: no matter how fast you walk forward, you can't get off. The thing to do is to either quit walking and be pulled off, or step to the left or the right and get off. The same principle applies to rip currents. Don't swim against them. Either let the current pull you out then swim back, at an angle,to the bank, or just swim to the left or the right of the current, parallel to the shore. Once out of the rip current, then swim back to shore.

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Here are tips from the NOAA on surviving rip currents:

- Try to remain calm to conserve energy.

- Don't fight the current.

- Think of it like a treadmill you can't turn off. You want to step to the side of it.

- Swim across the current in a direction following the shoreline.

- When out of the current, swim and angle away from the current and toward shore.

- If you can't escape this, try to float, or calmly tread water. Rip current strength eventually subsides offshore.

- If at any time you feel you will are unable to reach shore, draw attention to yourself: face the shore, wave your arms and yell for help.

For information concerning rip currents, visit the National Weather Service Rip Current Safety website at www.ripcurrents.noaa.gov.

Alan Matherne is the LSU AgCenter/Louisiana Sea Grant Coastal & Fisheries Outreach Agent for Terrebonne, Lafourche and Assumption parishes. He can be contacted at 873-6495 or amatherne@agcenter.lsu.edu. His articles and blogs are posted at bayoulog.com. You can "Friend" him on Facebook at facebook.com/alan.matherne and follow his "Tweets" on Twitter: @ twitter.com/amatherne.