New scientific research combined with the local knowledge held by surf lifesavers throughout New Zealand will help keep beaches safer, a marine geologist says.
Dr Terry Hume, a former Niwa coastal oceanographer, said while previous advice for those caught in rips had been to swim sideways, new research had shown rips were more complicated than first thought.
"There are other rips close to shore that lie inside sandbanks and they actually run parallel to the shore so the way to get out of them is to swim seawards or even landwards.
"Rips flow in different directions, in different ways at different beaches so the issue for people giving water safety messages in all of this is that it's too complicated to remember in a short message."
Dr Hume, who is also a keen surfer, said surf lifesaving had taken a step back to research, understand and better inform the public about rips, adding this would also inform the organisation on what beaches needed the most resources.