Rip Currents 101: How to escape the powerful surface currents (2024)

Many people consider Labor Day as the last gasp of summer, even if the heat will likely persist for at least a few more weeks, and a lot of people will spend at least part of the holiday weekend at one of South Carolina's beautiful beaches.

But there could be a predator lurking just below the waves, though it probably isn't the fear most people think of first.

Four people have died in rip currents in South Carolina so far this year, according to the Surf Zone Fatality database maintained by the National Weather Service. Across the United States, 34 people have died in 2024 after getting sucked in by the powerful currents — and more than 800 total people have died due to rip currents nationwide since 2010.

By comparison, only one fatal shark attack has been reported in U.S. waters this year— in Hawaii.

The most recent rip current death in the U.S. happened on Aug. 24 in Myrtle Beach, when 15-year-old Edwin Gonzalez-Rosendo died after getting trapped in a powerful surface current.

"A shocking number of people die each year in rip currents," explained Jamie Rhome, deputy director of the National Hurricane Center. Even if they don't die,"tens of thousands" of people are rescued from the powerful currents each year, according to the National Ocean Service.

Rhome said the NHC has tried to better convey the risk rip currents pose to swimmers in recent years, especially in the aftermath of a tropical cyclone.

He points to Hurricane Ernesto as an example. The Category 1 storm was hundreds of miles away from the southeast coast, but it still caused rip currents that took the lives of at least three people across the Carolinas — two on Hilton Head Island and one in Surf City, N.C.

"When a hurricane comes, there's all these visual clues that something might be wrong," Rhome said. "But the weather on the periphery of a hurricane where you get these rip currents is often gorgeous because the air is sinking on the periphery of a hurricane and sinking air creates clear skies and no rain, which is perfect conditions for going to the beach."

One demographic in particular has a disproportionately high share of rip current fatalities: men.

Since 2010, males have made up about 85 percent of the fatalities, including nearly 90 percent of rip current deaths nationwide so far in 2024. All of the rip current fatalities in South Carolina this year have been men, ranging in age from 15 to 73.

In addition to a general lack of awareness about rip current risk, Rhome partially attributes that disparity to masculine bravado — and a belief that even if there is a rip current, they can easily break out of it.

"I don't care how good of a swimmer you are," he said. "You could be an Olympic gold medal swimmer and you're not going to swim strong enough to swim against the rip current. That's how strong it is."

The National Weather Service reports that rip currents can move up to 8 feet per second. So what should you do if you're caught in one?

How to escape a rip current

While tropical cyclones typically kick up rip currents, they can occur at any time of year if the proper wave action conditions are met.

Michael Bradley, who oversees Folly Beach County Park and its lifeguard program, said the park's lifeguards help people escape rip currents "relatively frequently."

"Rip currents can form and dissipate periodically throughout the day," he said. "There's really not a constant rip current. It kind of goes with the incoming and outgoing tide. A rip current can form and then a few hours later it could be gone, but it could be somewhere else on the beach."

If people get caught in a rip current, they should float with the system until they're free of its pull, and then swim at an angle away from the current, but towards the shore. If a swimmer can't break free from a current, don't panic and try to flag down help. Bradley also advises that people should swim at the county park, and near one of its lifeguards.

The National Weather Service will also issue a rip current warning if conditions for one are favorable. Those advisories can be found on theNWS Surf Forecast.

Bradley also advises against swimming near the Folly Pier or the beach's groins. Those are the exposed erosion structures covered with graffiti placed at regular intervals along the beach.

"My observation is that those are the things that people go to set up next to because they give them a landmark, it's an easy place to tell people where you are, but they're also the more dangerous things to swim next to," he said.

In 2019, Kiwana Denson's 18-year-old son, Je'Sani Smith, died in a rip current in Corpus Christi, Texas. Despite being more than a thousand miles apart,the current that killed Smith was whipped up in conditions similar to ones that exist on Folly Beach.

The Texas beach had exposed structures that boosted rip current activity, and both are also prone to longshore currents— another type of powerful surface current that can carry swimmers away.

Smith was athletically built, Denson said. He was 6-foot-4, 215 pounds and involved in high school football, basketball and track — almost like the hypothetical Olympic athlete described by Rhome.

He frequented that part of the beach, and swimming conditions weren't too rough. But Smith swam too close to a jetty and got sucked into a rip current.

"April 11th of 2019 was just a regular day on the beach," she said. "This was on a yellow flag day in April, and his life was claimed like many other people.There was a total of eight people in 2019 on the Nueces County beaches that drowned from a rip current."

Since her son's death, Denson began working with the National Drowning Prevention Alliance andfounded the Je'Sani Smith Foundation, an organization aimed at raising awareness about the dangers of rip currents and advocating for better rules and legislation to convey rip current risk.

"We don't want to scare people, but we need them to know that there is a real danger in this ocean that you cannot see,"Denson said."And it has anybody's name on it."