March 2010 (ROTM#15) Somewhere in the Pacific Northwest

This is cool. People are starting to send me pictures of rips from overseas. This one was taken and sent by Andrew Ross, an Australian ex-pat now living in the Pacific Northwest. I can't say where in the Pacific Northwest because he refused to tell me, leading me to believe this picture is of a favourite secret surfing spot (in the Pacific Northwest) and I respect his need for privacy. If it helps, it's somewhere in Northern California, Oregon or Washington State!

 Anyway, the rip in this picture is the line of turbulent and discoloured (from churned up sand) water pushing out to sea from the bottom left of the picture. I'd guess that the beach is probably 100-200 metres to the left. This is a good example of a mega rip which is just a really, really big flash rip. In other words, it doesn't sit in a channel, it just suddenly appears after a big wave set has broken and the water has piled up and pushed the water out in a rip.

 The west coast of the US gets some pretty crazy and huge rips that occur on days like this when a nice clean groundswell hits. Most flash rips occur when it's stormy and messy, but the Pacific Northwest gets huge swell waves with periods of 15 to 20 seconds and even though the waves are nice and clean, they tend to promote some big rips. They definitely help the surfers get out the back on days like this....I think the surfer at the bottom right is paddling for the rip for that reason.

 Please send me any rip pictures you've got. I'd be happy to show them and describe them.

Beach is out of picture to the bottom left