January 2016 (ROTM#85) Stanwell Park, NSW, Australia

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. It's Christmas here in Australia and we always seem to get big wave conditions over the holidays keeping the lifeguards busy. This year is no exception. And with big waves, comes big rips. The bad news is that these rips flow a long way offshore and are very dangerous. The good news is that most of the beaches are closed for swimming so no-one is getting caught in them!

When waves get big and messy, rip spotting becomes harder. If you've got a keen eye, in the top picture you should be able to see a few narrow, dark green gaps heading offshore through the whitewater. These are the rips occupying deeper channels. With so much water coming in with the waves, there's clearly a lot more water moving seaward at very high speeds. Seaward of the whitewater (the surf zone), you should also be able to see streaks of sandy water heading offshore. This is the strong rip flow extending offshore beyond the waves.

You can see these parts of the rips better on the zoomed picture on the bottom. Eventually the rips do stop, but a very long way offshore! So on this occasion, the rip spotting is tricky because they look like darker gaps closer to the beach and in shallower water, but turbulent clouds of sandy water as they head offshore in deeper water.

Definitely not a good swimming day.

Big rips

Zoomed in on the rip plumes