Rip current in the Black Sea. Reverse current at sea or RIP currents

03 August 2015

Usually, when we learn that during the holiday season someone drowned in the sea near the coast, then. Of course, only one conclusion suggests itself: this man did not know how to swim, or, after drinking a certain amount of alcohol, he decided to freshen up. It is not surprising: for those who are good swimmers or even just able to stay on the water quite confidently, it is difficult to understand how to get into trouble, where the depth is sometimes ridiculous and you can fall to the bottom at any moment. But there are times when the cause of trouble is not alcohol or inability to swim.

On any sea coast, be it the Gulf of Mexico, the Black Sea or a lagoon on the island of Bali, you can observe a very dangerous but little-known phenomenon - a rip current, which is often called “dragon” and “rip” (from English rip current). For those who know about this phenomenon and have an idea of what exactly needs to be done when they find themselves in the zone of its influence, it, as a rule, does not pose any particular danger. But those who have never heard and, accordingly, do not know what needs to be done, may not be able to cope with the rip current even if they are first-class swimmers.

What is it? Imagine: you swim from the shore, then turn back, but you cannot reach the shore, despite the fact that you try to swim as much as you can. It’s as if you are “treading water” in one place or, in the worst case, you feel that you are gradually being carried further and further away from the shore. Attempts to change anything lead to nothing, your strength melts away, and you naturally begin to panic.

In order to learn how to cope with this phenomenon, you must first understand how rip is formed. This is a type of sea (ocean) current; his home distinctive feature is that it always moves at right angles to coastline. Rips are formed when water flows away from the shore after high tide.

Oddly enough, the greatest danger is posed by rip currents in shallow waters with gently sloping shores, where sand spits, shoals, and islands form. There are a lot of such places, for example, in the Sea of Azov. In such areas, the water, returning to the sea at low tide, encounters obstacles on its way - sand spits. The strait connecting the sea with the estuary is usually very narrow, and therefore the water pressure at low tide increases many times over. As a result, a flow is formed, the speed of which is up to 3 m/s.

In the figure this can be represented as follows.

Thus, during high tide, “corridors” appear near the shore at a certain distance. The waves bring water mass, which then returns to the sea at different speeds, forming rips.

As a rule, the width of the “corridor” - ripa - is small, no more than two to three meters. The speed of water movement along this “corridor” is about 4–5 km/h. Such rips do not pose any danger, including for those who absolutely do not know how to float on the water. But there are rips about 50 m wide, up to 500 m or more long, and the water speed can reach 15–20 km/h! These kinds of rips can really pose a serious threat even to experienced swimmers.

In order to avoid getting into a rip, you need to know how to recognize it. So the rip has following signs:

· a clearly visible strip of seething water extends from the shore into the sea perpendicular to the shore;

· areas with water of a different color or with water covered with foam are visible in the shallows;

· near the shore we can clearly distinguish an area with water that constantly carries foam, seaweed, bubbles in the direction from the shore to the sea;

· the tidal wave is interrupted in several places by a strip 5 to 10 m wide.

If you see any of the indicated signs, then you are in luck: to avoid danger, it is enough not to go into the water in this place. However, keep in mind that 80% of spontaneously formed rips cannot be visually recognized. Those who do not know how to swim usually go into waist-deep or chest-deep water and splash around in the water, unaware of anything. But since the rip current occurs close to the shore, the rip can be picked up and carried into the open sea even from the shallows. So if you don't know how to swim, don't swim alone and take warning red flags and signs on the beach seriously.

Now let's look at how to behave if you find yourself in a rip current.

1. The main thing is to remain calm. Remember that people who know what to do when they find themselves in a rip are almost always saved.

2. Use your energy wisely. There is no point in rowing against the current with all your might - you will lose strength, but at best you will remain in place. You need to swim to the side, not towards the shore, but along it. As a rule, the rips are narrow, only a few meters wide, and if you move to the side, you will quickly get out.

3. While moving, analyze the situation. If you are swimming to the side and do not stand still, but the current does not stop, then you are in a wide rip, from 20 m. Do not panic. The wide rip is small in length, and after a few minutes the flow will stop. Swim 50–100 meters to the side and calmly return to the shore.

Remember the following:

The rip will not drag you to the bottom, because it is not a whirlpool or a funnel. The top layer of water that moves with high speed, pulls from the shore along the surface, and not to the depth.

The maximum width of a rip is 50 m, but, as already mentioned, such rips are rare. Usually it is enough to swim along the coastline 20-25 m to swim out of the rip current zone.

The current very soon weakens and loses strength in the place where the waves break. Surfers call this place a line up; it is usually located at a distance of no more than 100 m from the shore.

What is this? Streams of water brought to the shore by waves accumulate there and, tearing the oncoming waves into certain place, go back to the sea, dragging with them everything they come across along the way. This is usually a narrow stream of water directed perpendicular to the shoreline. But its strength, size and direction can change depending on external conditions.

Having learned what it is, everyone will want to know where it most often happens.

Where is it? Having scanned the Internet forums, tourist blogs and comments to articles, I picked up a hundred cases of RIPs described by tourists. Here is an example of one of the cases:

Alina(India, 2015):
I fell into such a current in Kerala. Alas, at that time I had no information about him and did everything wrong: I tried to swim to the shore, I panicked and wasted my energy. Then I drank water a couple of times and suddenly saw a lifebuoy in front of me; the lifeguard from the shore realized what was happening to me and swam after me. The memories are terrible, then I couldn’t talk for about 30 minutes, I stuttered wildly when trying to pronounce any phrase, and I was also shaking wildly. I have been a good swimmer since childhood and could never imagine that I would really drown...

Having compiled a list of one hundred cases, I distributed them according to the geography of recreation. As a result of this “unscientific” analysis, it turned out that greatest number cases with RIPs occurred in Thailand(22 out of a hundred), with 18 on the island of Phuket. In eight cases, tourists swam out of the RIPs on their own, in two, rescuers helped, seven victims were helped by those who were nearby (relatives or strangers), in five cases, tourists drowned.

After studying all the cases, some conclusions need to be drawn:

1. You can swim out of a rip current, but to do this you need to be able to swim well and swim in in the right direction. Below is an illustration of how to swim out of RIP.

2. For greater safety, you should swim on beaches where there are lifeguards, be within their visibility range and comply with the requirements of signal flags. In practice, our tourists do not pay attention to warning posters and red flags. You need to be especially careful on wild beaches.

3. Often complete strangers come to help - try to swim next to other vacationers and immediately call for help if you feel that you are being carried away by the current. If you are carried far away, then because of the noise of the surf they will not hear you.

4. Unfortunately, regulations and advice do not always help, and tourists drown quite often. Here are a few accidents taken from the Vinsky Forum (abridged):

Futuramik(01.07.2016):
In Thailand, on the island of Phuket, a 28-year-old Russian drowned while swimming.

Sergey22(08/15/2016):
A tourist from Russia drowned in the sea on the island of Phuket after ignoring warning red flags.

Fidel castro rus(09/26/2016):
A Russian tourist drowned in the sea near the island of Phuket.

Sergey22(08.11.2016):
A Russian drowned on the beach of Bang Tao (Phuket).

From these reports it is clear that on the island of Phuket alone our tourists drown almost every month. (For reference: in Phuket in 2016, a total of 260 people drowned.)

For other holiday destinations, cases with RIPs showed the following figures (in descending order):

There are 16 cases in the Black Sea (14 in Russia, 2 in Abkhazia).

Indonesia - 13 cases (10 - Bali, 2 - Java, 1 - Sulawesi),

India - 9 cases (including GOA - 6).

Sri Lanka - 4 cases.

Three cases each: Cyprus (Paphos), Greece (2 Crete + 1 Corfu), Israel (2 Haifa + 1 Bat Yam).

Two cases each: Azov Sea, Baltic Sea (Kaliningrad, Klaipeda), Caspian Sea, Canary Islands (Tenerife), Australia (Sydney), USA (Florida, California).

Isolated cases can be ignored. In Turkey and Egypt, there were no cases with RIPs on the list, but this does not mean that they are not there at all.

Anticipating criticism regarding the reliability of the data, their representativeness and compliance with the theory of correlation and regression analysis, I agree in advance with all the comments: the reliability of the described cases was not checked, the total attendance of the countries was not taken into account, individual cases cannot characterize the situation in the countries as a whole.

For example, one case on Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands does not reflect the real danger of local RIPs, intensified by underwater currents.

Only two cases in Australia are associated with low tourist flow in this direction. It should be added that RIPs are considered the main danger on Australian beaches. The Australian Coastal Rescue Service counted 17,000 RIPs along the entire coast of the mainland.

A similar situation is in the USA (2 cases) and South America(isolated cases).

Safety rules at sea can be printed on the website in the form of leaflets:

No. 1 How to swim out of a rip current (pdf, A5 format).

No. 2 What is a rip current (pdf, A4 format).

If you print these leaflets on both sides of the sheet, you can get two leaflets of half the size.

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. Main danger This 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?

Reverse current can occur where there is surf: mainly in the seas and oceans, but it also occurs in big lakes. Strong rip currents most often occur in places where there are breakwaters, dams, reefs, coastal islands, spits and shoals. If you go on vacation where surfers like to hang out, then you are 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 those around you 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 upper layer water, 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.

As a rule, we are very surprised at the seemingly completely absurd death in the water of people who know how to swim and feel confident in the depths. Often the cause of such unexplained accidents is believed to be alcohol intoxication, but in fact, life is taken away by a phenomenon that, alas, only a few know about - a rip current.

We will tell you what it is and how to escape if you are unlucky enough to find yourself in such an unfortunate place.

So, rip current is a very, very dangerous thing that can kill even professional swimmers.

Attempts to escape the flow lead nowhere, and the person is simply seized by a state of panic.

The most dangerous are considered to be rip currents in shallow seas with flat shores, since sand spits do not allow water to return to the sea during low tide. The water pressure in the strait connecting the estuary and the sea increases, which forms a rapid, and in the middle of the sea a kind of river appears with a flow speed of up to 2.5-3.0 m/sec.

This is what it looks like when the current flows back towards the sea, perpendicular to the shore.

This often happens near the beach during high tides, after which the waves at different speeds return, forming a reverse current.

This might look like this:

The seething water is not visible here, but the current itself and, alas, the people caught in it are noticeable:

As a rule, the rip current corridor is narrow: 2-3 meters with a current speed of 4-5 km/h. This kind of rip is not dangerous. But if its width reaches 50 m, and its length 200-400 meters with a current speed of 15 km/h, this phenomenon becomes deadly!

Signs of a rip current are:

area of rushing water, perpendicular to the shore
area near the shore with discolored water
foam, algae and bubbles that move steadily from the shore into the open sea
discontinuities in continuous wave bands

But it should be remembered that 80% of dangerous rip currents are usually invisible!

As a rule, rips occur near the shore and can carry a person standing in waist-deep water out to sea, so you should not go into the water alone, especially if you are not a strong swimmer.

Rules of conduct in rip currents

Do not panic! Calm down and use your common sense. Remember that if you know these rules, 100 times out of 100 you will be able to get out of the current!
Save energy! Don't resist the current and don't swim to the shore - it's useless. Start swimming calmly to the side, parallel to the shore. If the rip is narrow, you will come out of it very quickly.
If the rip is wide (from 20 meters or more)... If it becomes clear that the rip is wide enough, you should relax on the water and not panic. Remember that the reverse current cannot be long, which means that after 5 minutes it will stop, after which you can swim 50-100 meters in the direction and head to the shore. Do not swim to the shore as soon as you feel that the current has stopped, it may start again!

Remember the following!

Bump leakLife never sinks to the bottom. This is not a whirlpool. It moves from the shore along the surface, and not into the depths.
The rip current corridors are not wide. Often their width does not exceed 50 meters, and even more often - 10-20 m. That is, you can get out of the rip by swimming 20-30 meters along the shore.
The length of the rip current is limited. It quickly weakens and ends where the waves peak and break. Surfers call this a “line up” and this is where they usually try to catch a wave. It is located no further than 100 meters from the shore.

This information can save the lives of your family and friends. Share this post with them!

In a matter of seconds, it can carry a bather far out to sea. How to avoid this?

Lost place

Rips can occur both at sea and in the ocean. More often - on shallow beaches with a flat, low-lying shore. This happens where no one expects - near the shore. A man splashes in the water, enjoying the sun and salty spray, when suddenly he begins to be carried out to sea. The bather panics: he tries to row to the shore, but does not get even an inch closer to it. He rows even harder, but in vain - an unknown force pulls him in the other direction. After several minutes of struggling with the sea, even experienced swimmers have no strength left. Rescuers say that most water accidents involve getting caught in currents like these.

Our information

Rips can also appear spontaneously – where no one is expecting them. This happens due to the fact that large masses of water accumulated in shallow water go back to the sea not in a wide front, but along a kind of trench resembling a river. This is a rip current. It is always directed in the opposite direction from the shore. The wider the gutter, the higher the flow speed (and the width can vary - from 2-3 m to 20 and even more). He is capable of dragging even a heavyweight with him, not to mention a child.

Keep your eyes open!

Fortunately, in many cases the rip can be calculated. It’s not for nothing that the current is called a rip current - a gap is actually visible in the surf line. Here are its signs:

Everywhere the waves roll onto the shore like identical white caps, but in some area there are no waves - only a strip of water, many swimmers go exactly there - they say the sea is calmer there. But this calm is an appearance;
another picture: in one place, perpendicular to the shore, a seething river has formed, it foams, bubbles, algae floats in it (and they float not to the shore, but from the shore). This river is the rip;
a sea of uniform color, such as turquoise or blue. However, a path of water of a different color “adjoins” the shore. For example, white, blue or purple. Stay away from this path.

Don't panic!

But what if it was not possible to calculate the rip and you are already being carried away from the shore into the sea? In such a situation, the main thing is not to panic and not lose composure. You can get out of the rip:

save your energy as much as possible - there is no need to fight the current and row to the shore, it is useless. On the contrary, relax as much as possible - let the river carry you. Don't be alarmed - it won't pull you under the water (this is a surface current!) and won't drag you too far. After 100-150 m, the flow speed should weaken;
swim perpendicular to the current to escape from the "chute". Having sailed about a hundred meters from the rip, turn towards the shore.
if the rip is wide and long, and your strength is running out, lie on your back and raise your hand so that the rescuers can see you. Take any position that will allow you to relax and stay on the water for a long time.

Safe Swimming Rules

Swim on beaches where there are lifeguards.
Don't do night swims.
Don't swim alone, especially on wild beaches.
Do you see warning red flags and signs on the shore that say rip current? Not even a foot in the water.
Don't leave children alone in the water! Even in shallow water, even if the sea is calm. Stay close.

Lyubava Greshnova:

I really love big waves on the sea or ocean and happily choose hotels that have them. Fortunately, God had mercy on undercurrents... Always check with the tour operator first about whether there are such currents, and then with the hotel owner. You can even chat with the locals. Don't ignore warnings. If the beach is closed, swim in the pool.