undertow

undertow, a strong seaward bottom current returning the water of broken waves back out to sea. There is in fact no such current in a gross sense, for the overall flow of surface water toward the shore in a surf zone is very small. The water actually thrown up on the shore by breaking waves does flow back, however, and under certain circumstances this return flow may be experienced by swimmers as a strong current. Returning water may, for example, be channelized by the presence or form of obstacles on the bottom into rip currents of significant velocity but quite narrow lateral dimension. Also, since the volume of returning water varies with the size of the waves, the swimmer who waits for a low-water trough or a cycle of low waves before standing up to walk to shore may encounter the return flow from large waves just gone by and again experience a seemingly strong current.