December 2023 (ROTM#180) City Beach, Perth, Western Australia

Those people in the water might be running away from that flash rip - and so they should!

On my computer I keep a folder called ‘Rip Current Library’ where I store all my rip pictures and videos. There’s a few sub-folders with each type of rip, but the ‘Flash Rip’ folder is unfortunately empty because it’s hard to get pictures of flash rips (although I managed to get one for the October ROTM).

I was in Perth for the World Conference on Drowning Prevention the first week of December and went to City Beach to do some media about rips for WAToday and Channel 9 news and there was a strong onshore wind and messy waves with the odd large set of bigger waves. The flash rips were going off all along the beach! So I managed to get a few snaps and here it is – a classic flash rip.

Where is it? It’s the cloud of light brown suspended sand heading offshore. Flash rips don’t last long, maybe a minute or two and this one wouldn’t have taken you far offshore, maybe 20 or 30 metres at most, but that’s far enough for someone who isn’t a good swimmer. Flash rips are very unpredictable and don’t sit in deeper channels – they just keep popping up and disappearing along the beach. They are also hard to spot if you are in the water so please just be aware of them – and remember, they happen on days when the waves are messy.

Please have a safe holiday over Christmas and New Years’s and if you live in the southern hemisphere and are heading to the beach over the holidays, please remember to always spend a few minutes thinking about beach safety when you go to the beach. Remember Surf Life Saving Australia’s Think Line!

Oh - and this post is a little memorable. It’s now been 15 full years that I’ve been doing Rip of the Month. Fifteen years! There must be some sort of award for that….