Rip currents typically flow at about , but they can be as fast as , which is faster than any human can swim. However, most rip currents are fairly narrow, and even the widest rip currents are not very wide; usually swimmers can exit the rip easily by swimming at a right angle to the flow, parallel to the beach. But swimmers who are unaware of this fact may exhaust themselves trying unsuccessfully to swim against the flow. The flow of the current also fades out completely at the head of the rip, outside the zone of the breaking waves, so there is a definite limit to how far the swimmer will be taken out to sea by the flow of a rip current.