November 2015 (ROTM#83) Surfers Paradise, Queensland, Australia

If you ever wanted a 'rip spotting tower', the Q1 Tower at Surfers Paradise in Queensland is your best bet for a birds eye view. This picture was taken by Danielle Drozdzewski, a colleague of mine at UNSW Australia who has worked on the social science aspect of rips with me. She went up the tower on holiday and was pleased to see that Surf Life Saving Queensland had a rip current safety exhibit (including a loop of my rip current video playing) at the visitors observation level. Hats off to SLSQ for taking advantage of the view.

You can clearly see the rips as darker channels heading out to sea between the shallow sandbars. You should also notice that not all of them are straight - many flow out at strong angles to the beach - and while some rips are spaced close to each other, some are not. With all the rips and tourists around you would think that would be a recipe for disaster. Fortunately, the lifeguards are spaced along the beach at regular intervals and Queensland has done a particularly good job at educating visitors about the dangers of rips. It makes a difference.

What a view and a sea of rips!