Wally Decker
Rip Current Awareness
Rip Current Awareness
Rip currents are the most common hazard people face at our beaches.
Rip currents are deadlier than tornadoes, flooding and lightning combined.
If you are caught in a rip current:
Try to remain calm to conserve energy.
Do not fight the current.
Think of a rip current like a treadmill you can’t turn off. You want to step to the side of it.
Swim across the current in a direction parallel to/following the shoreline.
Once out of the current, swim back towards shore.
Rip currents typically weaken beyond where the waves are breaking – when the current weakens, swim down the beach some before heading back to shore.
If you can’t escape the current, try to float or calmly tread water.
If at any time you feel you will be unable to reach shore, draw attention to yourself: face the shore, wave your arms and yell for help.
Learn more: https://www.weather.gov/ilm/ripcurrents
“Rip currents do not pull people under the water – they pull people away from shore”
-Wilderness medicine expert, Dr Seth Hawkins, Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist.
(June 8, 2026) First responders along the North Carolina coast have made nearly 70 rip current rescues since the Memorial Day weekend.
The most recent rescues were 15 at Wrightsville Beach on Saturday.
Five swimmers were rescued from rip currents at Holden Beach on Saturday.
