August 2009 (ROTM #8) Florida Panhandle, USA

This website is biased towards Australian beaches and rips, but rips occur around the world and are just as much of a problem to swimmers as they are here. Right now it's the middle of summer in the Northern Hemisphere and lifeguards around the United States have their hands full rescuing people in rips. More than 100 people down each year in the US because of rip currents. Dr. Stephen Leatherman is a coastal geomorphologist at Florida International University in Miami and he sent me this picture from a Florida beach taken a few months ago (I think it's somewhere in the Florida Panhandle...there's a lesson ...always write down the details in the e-mail when you download a file!).

 It's a good example of a flash rip under high energy conditions. The surf had increased in intensity and flash rips were popping up all over the place. While the rip appeared temporarily as a dark gap between the breaking waves, these rips are very mobile and variable in their appearance. That is why they are particularly dangerous and apparently there were a lot of rescues along the Florida coast the day this photo was taken.

 What is interesting is that this picture could be anywhere...Florida, Australia, South Africa, the Great Lakes, etc. Rips definitely have a lot of characteristics in common no matter where you are.

 Dr. Leatherman is also organising the first international Rip Current Symposium in Miami in February 2010. This meeting will bring together rip scientists and educators from around the world.

Red flag in front of a rip means danger in the US