I'm glad people are getting some knowledge out of this picture...I just put it up because I thought it was funny! Maybe it'll save your life one day lol
those signs are just to stop stupid tourists and fat dickheads that can't swim... swim with the current, if you go against it you get tired, then too tired to swim, then you get dead. thats why i love my country, born and raised around the beach.
i second what xpingxpongx said you don't swim with it, you swim parallel to the shore, i surf more than i ski (sadly) and rip currents arnt that bad it is the undertow that'll get ya but that is only a problem with big waves.