Just having the ability to float will give you confidence in water well over your head and get you out of a tight spot should you get caught in a rip current. For even if you are not able to get out of it by swimming parallel to shore (some rip currents are over a hundred feet wide), just floating will allow you to eventually escape the pull of the current. Riptides peter out offshore once you get past the area of breaking waves.
Suprisingly, many swimmers have never learned to float properly and thus panic when they find themselves over their heads and being pulled out to sea. They feel they need to swim themselves out of danger when they need only to float, reserving their strength for later.
Being able to float and do the elementary backstroke, when needed, is really important. You need to be comfortable with water occasionally drifting across your face as to breathe while on your back, too.
There is so little effort needed, once you can do these things.
Where I swim in the ocean you can walk during low tide and it barely gets to your waist in high tide :)
http://www.brewsteroyster.com/
Suprisingly, many swimmers have never learned to float properly
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My adult son told me that knowledge saved his life.