the best thing you can do is stay calm," Dusek said in NOAA's rip current survival guide. "It's not going to pull you underwater; it's just going to pull you away from shore." Dusek advises that ...

Rip currents form when incoming waves create an underwater sandbar. The waves push more water between the sandbar and the shore until it collapses and the water rushes back to the sea through a ...