October 2011 (ROTM#34) Shelly Beach, NSW, Australia

This picture is about as good as it gets. It's of a classic fixed rip snuggled between two sand bars at Shelly Beach, NSW which is on the Central Coast just north of Sydney. The beach is what we call a Transverse Bar and Rip Beach and is the most common beach state we get on the south-east coast of Australia. Obviously it's easier to see the rip from the air, but this one would look like a pretty obvious dark gap between regions of white water. You can see the bowl shaped embayment along the beach that the rip has carved out and the narrow rip-neck channel carving through the surf zone. You can actually see the motion of the water heading offshore. All that water coming in across the sandbars with the breaking waves is ending up in the rip which is basically flushing out the system. The picture is courtesy of Allan Cooke and Wyong Shire Council.

What a rip!