September 2015 (ROTM#81) Stanwell Park, NSW, Australia

I realise I've been using a lot of this beach the last few months, but it is my home turf and the rip currents along the beach the last few months have been incredible. It's actually a good thing that it's not summer swimming season, but it's been good for the surfers giving them free rides out the back.

There are many ways to spot a rip. I usually emphasise looking for dark gaps of water heading offshore, which is common for most rips that sit in deep channels (most of them). And you can definitely see some dark gaps in these photos. But when rips get stuck in the same place for several weeks or months, they can actually carve out a large erosional embayment, sometimes called a 'mega-cusp'. You can clearly see on the left that a huge embayment has been eroded out by the rip. So if you can't get your head around spotting rips in the surf zone, look along the shoreline, and if you see isolated embayments like this, there's a good chance it's a rip!

Over the last week, we've had big and consistent swell that has eroded the beach and flattened it out. When it calms down it'll be interesting to see if the rips on the beach, which have been there for about 4 months, are still in the same place or completely gone.

Look for the rip bowls