Rip currents are the greatest hazard to swimmers on surf beaches, but due to a lack of consistent incident reporting in many countries, it is often difficult to quantify the number of rip current related rescues and drowning deaths occurring along surf beaches. This study uses rescue data reported to the United States Lifesaving Association (USLA) by surf beach lifeguards from 1997 through 2016 to provide an estimate of rip current related rescues in the United States. Results show that rip currents are the primary cause of 81.9 % of rescues on surf beaches, with regional variation from 75.3% (East Coast) to 84.7 % (West Coast). These values are significantly higher than those previously reported in the scientific literature. Using this value as a proxy when examining overall surf beach related drowning fatalities, it is suggested that an annual figure of 100 fatal drownings per year due to rip currents in the United States is possibly an under-estimate. However, it is clear that the United States data would benefit by an increase in the number of lifeguard agencies which report surf related rescues by primary cause.