March 2023 (ROTM#171) Number One Beach, NSW, Australia

Subtle. Dangerous. Those are the words to describe the rip current in this picture. In fact, it’s so subtle it’s almost impossible to see. If you look closely at the picture, the water surface to the right, where the tree and stand up paddler are, is quite smooth. It’s also quite smooth to the left where the surfers are. If you look even more closely, perhaps you can see that the water surface in the middle is a little bit bumpy and rippled. Believe it or not, that’s a rip current.

 Most rip currents flow fastest several hours around low tide and in some cases they almost stop flowing at high tide, when it’s deeper and there are less waves breaking to drive the rip current flow. But not this one. I jumped in to see where it would take me (not recommended! I had flippers on!) and it was surprisingly strong and took me further offshore than I expected.

 One way to identify rip currents is to look for different surface texture of the water. Rip currents move water offshore whereas waves move water towards the beach. When the two water movements interact, they create a slightly disturbed surface. This one actually flows a little bit to the right on an angle before curving back to the left and offshore. Still can’t see it? It’s hard! This rip was actually flowing through a deeper channel, which normally appears as a dark gap between breaking waves because deeper water is always darker. However, because it was high tide it was deep everywhere and there was no colour difference.

 I guess the message here is that there’s different ways to spot a rip then to just look for dark gaps between whitewater, but it can be hard, which is why it’s so important to swim where there are lifeguards and lifesavers - between the red and yellow flags in Australia

Yes there’s a rip current in the middle of the photo!