January 2024 (ROTM#181) Scarborough Beach, NSW, Australia

The same rip current from high above (a) to straight in front (d)

One of the most common ways to try and teach people how to spot rip currents (like this website!) is by using pictures. Are pictures effective? Nothing is better than seeing rip currents in person because rip currents are not static features and the flow of water through the rip can provide strong visuals that can’t be captured by photos. Photos of rips are also often taken from above or from angles from high vantage points that are not typically available when you go to the beach. So they are not realistic views.

I tried something different this month. I went for a bodysurf at a local beach, which does have a nice high vantage point from the car park and I saw a nice channelised rip further along the beach. Can you see it in Image A? The rip is the narrow dark green gap going out through the sand bars and surf further down the beach.

I then walked down to the the beach and took Image B. Can you still see the thin dark gap? It’s a bit harder isn’t it? You’d easily miss it if you just glanced in that direction. I then walked along the beach a bit closer to the rip and took Image C from the high tide mark. It’s a bit easier to see and there’s also an embayment that the rip has carved out in the beach, which is a nice clue. Finally, I took a picture of it straight on. It looks different, but you can still see the dark gap between the whitewater. The dark area is a rock outcrop by the way, which is probably the reason why the rip formed there in the first place.

 I’ll keep trying to do stuff like this…it’s not always easy to see a rip when standing straight in front of it.