September 2017 (ROTM#105) Porthcothan Bay, North Cornwall, UK

The northern hemisphere summer is ending and unfortunately it has been another bad season for rip current drownings. The UK has had an unfortunate spate of rip current related fatalities the last few years, partly due to how challenging the beach conditions can be.

Many of the popular beaches in Cornwall have very high tidal ranges and conditions can change quite rapidly as the waves move up and down the beach. In particular, rip currents tend to suddenly fire up at certain stages of the tide when the flow through the rip channels literally ‘turns on’.  The RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institute) lifeguards do a fantastic job of monitoring conditions, constantly moving the red and yellow flags around and shepherding bathers and swimmers between them as the conditions change. However, lifeguards can’t be everywhere and even patrolled beaches can be difficult to manage.

This picture highlights part of the problem. The flags are at the upper end of the beach, but it’s a very narrow beach and there is a prominent, narrow rip current (indicated by the dark gap between whitewater) heading offshore from the rocks in the middle of the beach. Another reason why you should always stay clear of rocks when swimming. Thanks to Susanna Stevenson who sent me this picture through my Dr Rip’s Science of the Surf facebook page.  

Swimming next to rocks is never a good idea