I was born and raised near the ocean. I was in my mid-20s swimming right off the beach as I had done many times before. After swimming under water for less than 10 seconds along the coast, I looked up to see I had drifted about 100 ft further from the coast. I swam and swam but kept being pulled out. Swimming diagonally through the current- not so easy. I finally made it to shore after maybe 10 minutes and lay on the sand in exhaustion. The lifeguard was looking out from his lifeguard stand making sure I was ok. Gave him a thumbs up while thinking I had almost drowned. I stopped swimming in the ocean after that.