Don’t know about the backstroke - they say to swim parallel to the shore.....and not to panic....easier said than done.
Old NC beachcomber and riptide survivor here. If you get pulled put, don’t panic and fight it, or you’ll rapidly become exhausted and drown. Keep your head above the water and let it take you out. It only goes out 100-200 yards, usually. When it stops pulling you out, try to swim or float parallel to the beach and then swim into shore with the natural flow of water and the wave action. Best yet, know where you’re swimming and avoid areas known for rip tides. This procedure was once taught to Boy Scouts, long ago, when the Scouts were real out-doorsy type Boy Scouts.
I swim 2 to 3 miles a week year round for exercise in a indoor pool. My best open water swim was 3 miles at the Outer Banks in North Carolina from mile post 21 to Gary Olivers OBX fishing peer at mile post 18. I never go in the open water with out a board or a life guard rescue can. I never swim against the current and I don’t go out in the water if the wind is parallel to the beach.
On a beach that runs north- south, like most of the OBX shoreline, the wind must be from the east or west before I will go out in the water. A north east wind is definitely bad for more than just fishing because it drives the water rapidly south and is not visible unless you know what to look for. People who spend a lot of time at the beach and have experience can read the water and shoreline. A knowledge of the tides is essential. You can pick up a local tide chart at any tackle shop.
The boards I use must have a strong leash that is tethered to my arm by Velcro. I secure the tether well above my left elbow near my shoulder for swimming and boogie boarding or around my ankle for surfing. I pull the board or rescue can behind me as I swim from 50 to 200 yards beyond the shore breakers.
While swimming well beyond the breakers, I pass through the tail end of a rip current every few hundred yards. I try to stay close to 50 yards from shore but the rip currents frequently push you out. Once I’ve passed the end of a rip by allowing it, without fighting it, to push me out as I pass, I swim diagonally, in my direction of travel to return to within 50 yard of shore. I return to the beach by slowly swimming diagonally toward the beach until I reach the shore. I never try to swim the shortest route by swimming directly at the shore you will fight strong currents the whole way.
I have gone to the Outer Banks 2 or 3 times a year for nearly 40 years. I have seen people drown. They were too far out for me or any life guard to reach them in time. You can be swept out beyond the breakers in less than a minute.
I’ve seen people walking along the shore in the water no deeper than their shins and sometimes only their ankles, who get swept off their feet by a strong current into only a few inches of water. They then get get repeatedly knocked off their feet by waves and invisible currents underneath the waves that are driven by winds and changing tides that overwhelm them and pull them along the shore and out into open water beyond the breakers. This can happen in only a few minutes.
Several weeks ago, while I was fishing with friends in the Outer Banks, the Norfolk/Newport News local news channel reported that a toddler walking along the shore with his grandmother was knocked by a wave out of his grandmothers hands into the shore break. She was not able to grab the child; the child was not able to stand up. She watched helplessly while her grandchild rolled under the shore breakers and disappeared into the waves. It happened less than a mile from where we were fishing. It’s heart breaking and it happens all the time.
Sometimes the bodies sink and aren’t recoverable immediately until gasses build up in their bodies that float them to the surface. The Coast Guard flies in helicopters low over the water at night with a search light to find the remains. Vibrations from the rotor blades or from very low flying Coast Guard AC-130’s will often bring them to the surface. I’ve sat on the porch of rental units watching search by multiple helicopter and planes go up and down the beach until the wee hours of the morning.
If you can’t swim at least a half a mile without stopping and tread water for a long time, I would not go out in the water unless their was a life guard. Even if their is a life guard I would not go out alone nor without something that floats that’s attached to me.