Guarded beaches on Miami Beach. These stations are supported by Lieutenant personnel in four-wheel drive vehicles. A rip current is a seaward stream. It is caused by an excessive amount of water that has come inside a sand bar over which waves have broken shoreward. This accumulation of water becomes higher than sea level and flows seaward through deeper areas where waves are not breaking ashore.
Rip currents are visible from shore.
This indicates that a rip current is forming by 'washing-out' sand from the bottom as the water flows seaward. This defines the deeper areas. Slots of darker water indicate where rip currents have already formed. You are witnessing items brought over the sandbar with the waves washing back out to sea with the rip current. An area of confusing waves.