May 2010 (ROTM #17) Tamarama Beach, Sydney, NSW Australia

I've spent much of the summer conducting my own little rip current experiments, chucking purple dye in to see how they flow and then chucking myself in to see where I end up. Some of the dye release pics are on the Science of the Surf Facebook page (which everyone should become a Fan of!). I must have done almost 30 rip floats this summer and for the vast majority, if I just stayed afloat and did nothing, the rip ended up dumping me safe and sound on the sand bar. Most of the dye releases showed the dye heading seaward from the shoreline and through the rip and then curling around where it was brought back in by the waves making a complete circle. Sometimes the dye re-circulated a few times. This supports a lot of the results from neat rip research being conducted on rips around the world.

The only problem with staying afloat is that I knew exactly what I was doing and was comfortable. From time to time, waves did break over my head and I can see how this could lead to panic in a non-swimmer who is following the advice of 'just go with the flow'. On the other hand, when I swam parallel out of the rip, I made it onto the sand bars, but it wasn't always easy, and I'm a good swimmer.

One thing to note about rips like the one in this picture is that most of the water that enters rips enters from the SIDE by draining off the sand bar. This flow is pretty strong in itself, almost as strong as the rip. So swimming parallel often means swimming against this side drainage which would often overpower a weak swimmer.

 So once again, the best advice is to avoid getting in rips by looking for dark gaps and 'calmer' water between areas of white water. Just like this picture shows. It's a pretty simple and clear message (no pun intended).

This rip takes up about half of Tamarama Beach