This Rip of the Month might not show you what a rip looks like, but it should show you just how important and dangerous these common hazards on Australian beaches are.

This is simply an extraordinary photo. I have always been interested in rip currents in South Africa. I know the coastline is very similar to the Australian coastline and that there must be a lot of rips and a lot of drownings.

I've never really thought about it, but that could be the quintessential name for an Australian beach! Fortunately, it's actually tucked away along the mid-north coast of NSW and never gets many crowds.

This picture was sent to me from Ignacio Florez of the Salinas Lifeguards, who were interested in some advice on conducting beach safety education.

This is a rather incredible photograph sent to me by rip current scientist Joo Yong Lee from Sungyunkwan University in Korea. It's of Haeundae Beach, which is the most popular beach in Korea.

This is pretty much a classic rip current that we find on the east coast of Australia and there's lots of them.

The combination of water running back out of these cusps and the longshore current causes offshore directed eddies to spin out about 100 m from the shoreline.

There has been a lot of debate in the rip current world recently on what to call the different types of rips out there.

The March 2013 Rip of the Month showed a pretty typical picture of breaking waves along a beach and asked the question ‘Are there any rips in this picture’. Well, the answer is ‘No’.

I've been doing Rip of the Month for 3 years now so if you've been following this, then you should be getting better at spotting rips. So here's a question for you: is there a rip in this picture? It all begins with an idea.

Our experiment at Bulli Beach, just north of Wollongong, NSW was the last of 6 experiments we've done over the last 15 months. We've learned a lot about rips, but also raised a lot of questions. It all begins with an idea.

It all bI'm not a great fan of signs given that most people can't be bothered reading them, but these 2 signs are pretty standard on Australian surf beaches when it comes to rips and they are pretty useless. egins with an idea.