New Zealand is a small island in the middle of the pacific ocean. There is a lot of water, lakes, rivers, and oceans. Despite this, there are 5 deaths on average and over 700 people need to be saved from getting caught in a rip.
A rip can occur when waves roll up on the beach and interact with the shallow water and the sandbank. The wave breaks all over the beach but there are areas between the sandbank where there are deeper channels, these channels are where the water returns to the seas. It is in these narrow channels where the rips happen and where the danger for people arises.
Even for a country like New Zealand, which has lots of oceans, the threat of the rip being dangerous is still high. Not because it is unknown or unseeable. You can see the rip by looking for the calm strip of water surrounded by waves.
Fight or Flight?
You are caught in a rip, the challenge isn’t knowing what a rip is, it is doing the right things once you get in it.
The panic of being sucked out of the beach overcomes people. They fight against the rip. Even Olympic swimmers couldn’t overcome the power of a rip. The notion of fighting the ocean is comical, but when you get into a stressful situation, that is usually your first response.
Freak out, panic, use all your strength. It is a typical response, but one that feels helpful is ultimately putting you in a worse situation.
Think and act
The advice for rips used to be to swim to the side to get out of the rip. The issue was that you might be swimming into the rips current, choosing the wrong side to swim out to.
The current thinking from University of Canterbury Coastal Geomorphologist Dr Seb Pitman is “ride the rip. Rather than fight against it, just stay in it and see what happens.”
You want to wait until you can feel the rip’s current weaken then you can use the waves on either side of the rip to take you back to shore.
What does it mean for you?
It is normal to have a reaction to an unknown or unpredicted event.
The challenge is to then decide if your initial response is helpful or is even accurate. Ride the rip and use that time and space to think through what is happening.
Make a decision when you are in a better frame of mind than a reactionary one made under stress.
You don’t have to make a decision immediately, you have time to consider and reconsider your thoughts.
Ride the rip.
Luke McMeeken-Ruscoe 