the.com/riptide
the ocean's polite suggestion that you swim sideways or die
means A strong, narrow current of water that flows swiftly away from the shore, capable of dragging swimmers out to sea — properly called a rip current, though 'riptide' is the name that stuck.
from A compound of 'rip' and 'tide.' The 'rip' is the same blunt word for a violent tear, recorded since the 1400s and likely of Scandinavian kin (compare Danish 'rive,' to tear), which captures the way the current seems to tear the water open. 'Tide' is older still, from Old English 'tīd,' meaning a span of time, the sense that eventually attached itself to the sea's rhythmic rise and fall. The word is a slight misnomer: oceanographers note these currents have nothing to do with the tides, but the name 'riptide' — surfacing in 19th-century coastal English — was too vivid to dislodge.
- escape trick
- Swim parallel to shore, not against it
- speed
- Faster than an Olympic swimmer at full sprint
- deadly toll
- Kills more beachgoers than sharks annually
- deceptive calm
- Often looks like the safest, smoothest water
- width
- Usually narrow enough to escape in seconds
corryvreckan whirlpool — between jura and scarba islands, scotland — creates 8-knot currents and standing waves up to 10 feet high
saltstraumen maelstrom — nordland, norway — strongest tidal current in the world, flows at 22 knots during peak tidal exchange
gulf stream — atlantic ocean — warm ocean current flowing from florida to europe, reaches speeds of 5+ knots