February 2011 (ROTM#26) Maroubra Beach, NSW, Australia

It's been a bad summer here on the Australian East Coast with terrible flooding and Cyclone Yasi, but people have also been drowning in rip currents. It's rare for people to drown in rip currents on a Sydney beach, but 2 people drowned in a rip current at Maroubra Beach in a week.

It may very well have been the rip shown in this photograph. Channel 7 News came to film one of my Science of the Surf talks at the Maroubra Surf Life Saving Club and sent a helicopter to film the dye release. Several days later the first drowning occurred. These images and footage are courtesy of Channel 7.

To increase awareness of the rip current hazard in Australia, February 6 has been designated 'Rip Current Awareness Day'. This is the anniversary of the infamous mass rescue of hundreds of people caught in a flash rip at Bondi Beach in 1938. Part of this joint initiative between Surf Life Saving Australia and the University of New South Wales will be a release of purple dye into a rip current on 21 Sydney Beaches virtually simultaneously. This all depends on weather, waves, and the beach morphology. If we pull it off, it will be spectacular and will hopefully help with ongoing rip current education.

Click the pic to watch the video