Dangers  at  the  beach

A rip current - "a narrow, fast-moving channel of water that starts near the beach and extends offshore through the line of breaking waves. It has neck + head".
If you do get caught in a rip current, the best thing you can do is -
1- stay calm. It's not going to pull you underwater, it's just going to pull you away from shore.
2- Call and wave for help.
3- You want to float, and
4- you don't want to swim back to shore against the rip current because it will just tire you out.
5- You want to swim out of the rip, parallel to shore, along the beach and then follow breaking waves back to shore at an angle.
When you first get to the beach, a- the best thing you can do is swim near a lifeguard. And then if you have questions about if the conditions are hazardous or not, ask a lifeguard. And then many beaches have things like a flag system, or other forms of communication to be able to tell you if the conditions are hazardous.
But if you go to a beach without a lifeguard, when you get there, you want to make sure you know -
1- how to spot a rip current, and
2- if you get caught in one, know how to get out.
3- And then when you go in the water, always bring flotation. In terms of the tide, usually rip currents are going to occur more at low tide when you have waves breaking over the sandbar near shore. And that's the third part, the sandbars. Usually, you're going to have strong rip currents where you have significant sandbar near the shore with a channel in it.