August 2022 (ROTM#164) Dominical Beach, Costa Rica

Several years ago I was invited to Costa Rica by Alejandro Gutiérrez Echevería, an oceanographer at the Universidad Nacional in San Jose to help with the establishment of a national lifeguard service by talking about the importance of rip currents. Costa Rica has a large number of rip current drownings each year as it is a popular destination for North Americans, particularly university students on spring break.

The good news is that Costa Rica now has a national lifeguard service and one of those lifeguards, Alvaro Cedeño,  took this fantastic image from a drone at Dominical Beach on Costa Rica’s west coast. Dominical is considered to be a ‘hidden gem’ according to social media, which means that everyone goes there now, which is not necessarily a good thing given that the beaches along this stretch of coast experience high wave energy and big rip currents – it’s a surf coast.

This rip is massive as evident by the plume of sediment extending offshore. It looks like the rip current is channelised and the sediment is coming out from the river. While rip flow can often recirculate this one extended well beyond the surf zone before slowing down and expanding in what is called a rip head. There also looks like an addition rip or channel taking water offshore just next to the river and further down the beach you can also see wide dark gaps in the whitewater which are also channelised rips. Of course it’s easy to see all this from the perspective of a drone, but not so easy when you are on the beach itself!

Costa Rica - big muddy rip hopefully crocodile free