According to the YouTube video Rip Currents: How to Survive the Deadliest Ocean's Trick, a rip current occurs when there are two circles of water spinning close to shore in opposite directions such that the water between them is flowing away from shore. My question is
Is it possible to put yourself in a position where you're inside a spinning circle of water associated with a rip current and there's no way to escape from it without swimming underwater until you're rescued?
I don't know if that's possible or not. Maybe the water on the surface in a spinning circle is flowing around the circle and towards its centre and the water below the surface is flowing away from the centre. I won't get into the question about whether it's possible to escape the circle by swimming underwater. I think in that situation, the best thing is to swim directly away from the centre and not to swim against the current and let yourself keep being dragged around in circles. Even if you do that, the rate that water is flowing towards the centre might still be too fast. This is pretty much a yes no question so I think it should be easy to provide an answer that actually answers my question. Researchers might then be able to use the answer to invest in research on the best strategy to escape from a rip current.