It’s a beautiful day at the beach. The sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, but the waves are a little big, so a swimmer scouts out a good location to dive in. He spies one area that seems choppy, but calmer, an oasis of less turbulent water amongst the crashing breakers, and heads into the water.

That’s a mistake — and it could be costly one.

That area of calm amidst the roiling waves very well may be a rip current, a very powerful channel of water heading straight out to sea. It’s essentially a pipeline out for all the water coming in via the waves breaking on the beach. Rip currents can travel anywhere from 1 foot per second to 8 feet per second. Even the strongest swimmers would have trouble swimming against a strong rip current.

It’s not as if there are rip currents in the Pamlico River and its tributaries. There aren’t. But what Beaufort County has plenty of are beach lovers who love nothing better than packing up and heading to the Outer Banks for a day, a weekend or an extended vacation.

However, the beaches of North Carolina can host some serious rip currents. Emerald Isle police reported there had been 80 rip current incidents between June 9 and Monday. In the span of those 10 days, four people died as a result: a 17-year-old, a 16-year-old, a 21-year-old and a 56-year-old man who was trying to save two girls from a current.

If one is making a trip to the beach, of course swimming is an expected option, but swimmers need to beware if there are red flags flying. If planning to take a dip in the ocean, everyone should do so at a beach with a posted lifeguard. To be safer still, every swimmer should know what a rip current looks like and how to get out of it, because trying to swim against one is an exercise in futility.

Rip currents pull swimmers away from the shore and out to sea — they do not pull people under the water. Deaths result when swimmers are unable to keep themselves afloat as fear, panic and exhaustion from fighting a rip current sets in.

A channel of churning water and a break in the incoming wave patterns are signs of a rip current. The water also may have a noticeably different color, and foam, seaweed or other debris moving steadily out to sea within the channel.

Since the current is pulling one out to sea, the immediate impulse is to try to swim directly back toward shore. But there’s no fighting a rip current — instead, swimmers must swim out of it. Swimming parallel to the shore will make that happen; once out of the current, that person can swim right back in to shore.

The key is to remain calm, even if the current is pulling one farther and farther away from the beach. If one is unable to swim back in, wave the arms to get the attention of someone on the beach.

Remember, just last week a man died trying to rescue others caught in a rip current. If witnessing another person being pulled out to sea, get the attention of a lifeguard first. Where there’s no lifeguard, if possible, throw the swimmer something to help keep him afloat, then instruct them to swim parallel to the shore.

Summer vacations are the makers of memories but this summer, make sure those beach memories are happy, safe occasions, and not the tragedies seen in Emerald Isle this month.