November 2009 (ROTM #11) Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, USA

I've been working my way down the US East Coast meeting up with people associated with the  Break the Grip of the Rip Campaign . This is the excellent national rip education and awareness campaign that's been up and running in the States for about 6 years. I recently stayed in Lewes, Delaware where Wendy Carey (University of Delaware Sea Grant) organised a workshop on rips for myself and a bunch of regional lifeguards and then took me on a tour of the Delaware and Maryland beaches. This picture was taken from the top of one the local hotels in Rehoboth Beach in Delaware. The weather was pretty dismal with a howling northeaster and record low temperatures, but at least the surf was up (well, only about 1-1.5 m) and we got some great shots of some flash rips.

 Flash rips are often the hardest rip type to spot as they suddenly pop out of nowhere and only last for a very short period of time (sometimes less than a minute). They appear as streaks of white water with clouds of suspended sediments. The one in this picture is in the middle of the shot and appears as a thin neck pushing out past the surf zone that quickly slows down and turns into a mushroom cloud.

 Why did it occur? Flash rips form when a group of large waves suddenly break in the same location, momentarily increasing the water level. This results in a sudden "pumping" of water offshore, i.e. the flash rip. What should you have done if you were caught in this one? Nothing at all. If you just relaxed and stayed afloat, the rip would have taken you out the back. A good swimmer would then swim towards the side and then back towards the breaking waves and be brought back to shore quickly. A poor swimmer should just stay afloat and signal for a lifeguard. Of course on this day, the flash rips weren't dangerous at all simply because no-one was swimming.

 I'd like to thank Wendy Carey, Deborah Jones, Tim Schott, Steve Pfaff, Spencer Rogers, Katie Mosher, Sandy Sanderson and all the other people from SeaGrant/NWS who have helped organised my rip presentations and workshops and taken the time to meet with me during October. Many thanks also to all the people who attended the workshops. It's been extremely rewarding.

Flash rips are extremely hard to spot from the shoreline. Easier from a tall building like this.