More rip currents along beaches due to past winter storms

Winter storms pounding Central Coast beaches have shifted the sand around. Changing the way currents flow and waves break, and strong rip currents are the result.

“So there’s been a lot of sediment that’s sort of locked itself up in certain areas and with all this energy coming in from the wave environment, it’s definitely moved a lot of the sediment back around,” said Brian Garcia, Warning Coordination Meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

Beaches from Aptos all the way down to Moss Landing have really been the culprit from this past winter because of all the sand that’s been moved around. Central Fire in Santa Cruz County explained rip currents as channels of water flowing away from the beach, finding the quickest way back out to sea.

“After the waves take the water in, it’s going to take the path of least resistance back out, and that’s what the rip current is,” said Derek Staley, Central Fire Captain.

Central Fire also said they expect more rescues within the next few months, especially now that the weather is nicer and more people are headed to the beach.

“We’re always ready to go 24 hours, 7 days a week, but on those days you just have more bodies in the water and it just increases the chance that there’s going to be a rescue,” said Staley.

The best way to survive a rip current is to stay out of the water completely, it’s important to know the threats of Central Coast beaches.

“Here we have sneaker waves, here we have large shore pound, here we have rip currents, and it all of course goes into extremely cold water,” said Garcia.

Lifeguards will be back on weekend duty at Santa Cruz County beaches in a few weeks.