May 2020 (ROTM#137) Broulee Beach, NSW, Australia

In these COVID19 times, many popular beaches have been closed to the public, but some beaches on the South Coast of NSW often look deserted most of the time anyway, like Broulee Beach in this photo. Many south coast beaches are unpatrolled by lifeguards and lifesavers, yet are home to many coastal tourist parks and also have rip currents much of the time. It's therefore no surprise that the south coast is a drowning 'hotspot'. In the foreground of this picture is a deep trough running along the beach that eventually turns offshore into a rip current adjacent to the headland (can't see it in this photo). Further down the beach is a narrow rip current channel that appears as a dark gap between the surf. And you can see several more dark green gaps further down the beach. These are pretty typical conditions for many of the south coast beaches so be careful! It always helps to look at a beach from height (in this case Broulee Head) as it's easier to spot the rips.

This picture was taken earlier this year by Professor Gerd Masselink, a leading coastal geomorphologist from the University of Plymouth in the UK when he was helping launch the CoastSnap station at Broulee Beach with Dr Mitch Harley of the UNSW Sydney Water Research Laboratory. It’s worth having a look at the CoastSnap program.

South Coast NSW beaches are fantastic….and rip prone.