Beach safety
Rip currents are the leading surf hazard on United States beaches, and the response that gets people out of one is the opposite of the instinctive response. These pages explain what to look for from the beach and what to do in the water, staying close to National Weather Service wording.
Swim at a beach with lifeguards, and swim near them. The United States Lifesaving Association puts the chance of drowning at a guarded beach at roughly one in eighteen million. Every other measure on these pages is second to that one.
The pages
- How to spot a rip current
What a rip current looks like from the beach, why the calm-looking gap is the dangerous one, and what to check before you enter.
- Caught in a rip current
The current pulls you out, not under. Why swimming straight back to shore fails, and what the National Weather Service tells you to do instead.
- Rip current vs. undertow
Three terms used interchangeably for three different things. Which one is the real hazard, and why the mix-up leads people to the wrong reaction.
- Beach warning flags
The colours lifeguards fly, what each one permits, and why the flag on the beach outranks any forecast on this site.
Today's rip current risk
The National Weather Service issues a rip current risk level in its Surf Zone Forecast for many stretches of coastline. Of the 75 spots on BreakAtlas, 50 carry a level today — each shown on its spot page with the forecast office, the zone and the issue time attached.
Moderate risk — 25 spots
Bolsa ChicaCarlsbadClearwater BeachDel MarEl PortoEncinitasHuntington BeachLa JollaMalibu (Surfrider)Manhattan BeachNahantNantasket BeachNewport BeachOceansidePensacola BeachSalt CreekSan OnofreSeal BeachSiesta KeyThe WedgeTourmaline Surf ParkTrestlesVenice BeachVenturaZuma Beach
Low risk — 25 spots
Asbury ParkBelmarCampus PointCarolina BeachCocoa BeachDaytona BeachFolly BeachHampton BeachHiggins BeachIsle of PalmsJalama BeachJenness BeachManasquanMatunuckNarragansettOcean City (MD)Ocean City (NJ)Ponce InletPonquogue BeachRinconRockaway BeachSanta BarbaraSt. AugustineVirginia BeachWrightsville Beach
The remaining 25 spots sit in forecast zones whose office publishes no rip current line — Hawaii and northern California among them. Those pages say so plainly rather than showing a blank. A missing level describes the forecast, not the water.
What these pages are
Explanations of a hazard, written to be read before you are standing in front of it. They are not a clearance to enter the water and they do not replace a lifeguard, a posted flag or a National Weather Service warning — the reasoning is on the safety disclaimer. Where these pages follow agency wording, the authoritative version is the agency's own, and it may be newer than ours.