May 2024 (ROTM#185) Tamarama Beach , Sydney, Australia

The freight train of rips.

Wow! This is one big massive rip current flowing out the southern end of Tamarama Beach in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs. Tamarama was my stomping grounds for many years and I was the caretaker of the surf life saving club on the northern headland (cream coloured building) for 4 amazing years in the 90’s. It’s the birthplace of my Science of the Surf community talks and my dye releases and never in my 30+ years here in Sydney have I seen a rip this big at Tamarama!

Technically it’s a boundary rip because it’s flowing out against the southern headland, but it also takes up about 1/3 of the beach. You can see how strong it’s flowing by the large ripples (bedforms) in the channel, which is a sign of…strong currents. Tons of sand on the beach as well, but that rip will be locked in place for quite some time.

Sometimes I tell people that rips look like roads flowing out through the surf, well, this one looks like one big green road. I took this while taking my third year coastal course students on a coastal walk from Bronte to Bondi. It never disappoints!