By KEVIN TAYLOR
Panic is the biggest danger for anyone caught in a rip, lifeguards say.
A rip is a body of water that is moving from the shore back out to sea, and can drag swimmers more than 100m offshore.
Water Safety New Zealand says that anyone caught in a rip
should swim towards the nearest breaking waves, or float on his or her back and wait until the rip stops moving before trying to swim to safety.
Whangamata's head paid lifeguard, Cam Marett, estimates 80 per cent of the rescues at the beach over summer are of people caught in rips.
Identifying features of rips are calm patches in the surf where waves are breaking each side, rippled or crisscrossed water, discoloured water, foamy water, and adjacent sand bars.
Mr Marett says a trap for people is that calmer areas of surf may well hide a rip. A busy day at the beach holds the potential for 40 or 50 people to get caught in a bad rip, stretching lifesaving resources, he says.
Generally rips carry people about 50m or 60m out to sea.
Mr Marett says people tend to try to fight a rip and attempt to swim straight back to shore. Once they are exhausted they get into trouble.
Barry Leabourn, of Surf Lifesaving Bay of Plenty, warns people against panicking.
"Rips only take you a couple of hundred metres out. It's the panic that actually drowns people."
He says 80 per cent of the rescues by lifesavers at Mt Maunganui are outside the flags, and many of those rescued are caught in rips or holes. Swimmers from inland centres like Rotorua and Hamilton are also more likely to need rescuing because they are not used to the sea, he says.
Water Safety NZ says of the 11 people who drowned last year at surf beaches, four were caught in rips.
