In addition, North Carolina Sea Grant offers a brochure that emphasizes the signs that rip currents may be present and appropriate responses. If you are caught in a rip current, swim parallel to shore. Rip currents can pull even experienced swimmers. The currents are formed when water rushes out to sea in a narrow path. They may form in a break in a nearshore sandbar, or if the current is diverted by a groin or jetty.
Many rip currents are temporary, while others are permanent.
Most trouble spots are less than 30 feet wide. Often they occur after storms. A difference in water color murkier from sediments or darker because of greater depths. A difference in waves. Rip currents have larger, choppier waves, with calmer ones near shore.