So where would you swim at the south end of the beach (bottom of this picture)? Well, the water looks pretty inviting until you realise that it's a very dangerous

This image is quite amazing. It shows a rip current channel running along the beach from the bottom of the image at a strong angle before widening and turning straight offshore.

Look more closely and you can see this spiralling vortex quite a ways offshore, the remnants of what we call a 'rip pulse'.

This picture was sent to me by Clayton Jones, an ex-pat Australian living in San Diego and it shows the north end of Imperial Beach, San Diego after 4 months of El Nino weather and surf conditions.

There was a fairly big debate a few years ago about whether rips re-circulate within the surf zone (area of breaking waves) without going far offshore or whether they flow well beyond the breaking waves.

I don't know much about beaches in Israel other than that they obviously had some and that some early rip current studies were done there in the 1980's.

After 7 years of putting up Rip of the Month pictures it's about time that I showed rips from one of the more famous 'rip' beaches in the world, Narrabeen Beach on Sydney's northern beaches.

I use this beach a lot (mostly because it's where I live), but it's also like a rip factory. I have seen every type of rip there is on this beach so it's perfect for educational purposes.