Here's how you survive being caught in a rip tide

Capt. Butch Arbin is a long-time veteran of the Ocean City Beach Patrol who has spent enough time in the water to know the risk associated with rip currents.

According to the U.S. Lifesaving Association, the annual number of deaths associated with them nationally exceeds 100, and Arbin says that they’ve been the cause of about 95 percent of all O.C. Beach Patrol rescues.

Educating beach visitors about the risk of these powerful, dangerous currents is an important part of keeping everyone safe this summer.

Why they form and why they’re dangerous

“A rip current is exactly that - a current of extremely fast-moving water,” Arbin said. “A wave brings in thousands of gallons of water toward the beach, and if it escapes back out to sea through a narrow gap in the sandbar it’s like pinching a hose. The pressure turns way up and the water flows out much stronger than expected.”

That sudden current, which can move as fast as eight feet a second, is something even the strongest swimmers aren’t going to escape if they’re swimming against it, he said.

“You’ll use up all your energy trying to fight it, end up exhausted, and then your head slips underwater,” Arbin said. “Even great swimmers won’t win that way.”

How to identify and avoid them

The first step in dealing with rip currents safely is to know what the signs of risk look like.

“The way we can identify them is by looking at the foam kicked up by the waves,” he said. “You’ll see a distinct channel of that going straight out into the ocean, and you might see a brown-colored strip where the sand and debris is being carried out.”

However, that can be difficult to see when your vantage point isn’t elevated - as the beach patrol typically is - so swimmers are being urged to check with a lifeguard on duty before hopping into the water, and not to step off the beach at all without a guard present.

“ ‘‘Keep your feet on the sand until the lifeguard’s on the stand,’ ” Arbin said. “This is one of the biggest things, and would have prevented many disasters if people had followed this advice.”

How to escape if you’re caught in a rip current

Arbin advocates a three-step approach to dealing with a rip current if you’re carried away from the beach, one with a simple acronym he hopes every beachgoer will remember: RIP.

First, “Relax.”

Keep calm while assessing the situation and holding onto any floatation device you might have.

“Don’t panic,” Arbin stressed. “Even good swimmers can lose their head and try to swim against the rip current. Then they end up in trouble.”

Second, “I need help.”

“As soon as you realize you’re in trouble you need to wave your hands and yell to get somebody’s attention,” he said. “Surfers might be able to help while rescue swimmers are running along the beach and swimming out to get you.”

Third, “parallel.”

This is key, according to Arbin. Rip currents aren’t very wide - not much wider than a home swimming pool - and swimming along the beach, rather than into the current, is how you should react.

Relax.

I need help.

Parallel.

Finally, leave rescues to the professionals

If you see someone in the water in trouble, don’t try to rescue them yourself, Arbin said. Yell for help, yell for them to swim parallel to the beach or throw them a flotation device if you have one, but don’t complicate matters by being carried out yourself.

“When untrained people try to help someone in a rip current, more often than not we end up with two victims to rescue,” Arbin said.