January 2022 (ROTM #157) Lighthouse Beach, NSW, Australia

Welcome to the 14th anniversary of the Rip of the Month! The largest collection of rip current pictures in the world. Unfortunately this important achievement has not yet been recognised by the Guinness Book of World Records, but take it from me – it’s a world record. It probably deserves its own wiki page as well – please feel free to start one, I have no idea how that stuff works.

So here we are at Lighthouse Beach on the beautiful Mid-North Coast of NSW and in Myall Lakes National Park. On the northern end is a Lighthouse (that you can’t see) and around the southern headland is Treachery’s Beach and then after another headland, Yagon Beach. All are stunning and well-loved by surfers and campers who reckon it’s sharky. I’m not sure about this, but on the day I took this picture, there were about 100 dolphins in the water.

Lighthouse Beach is primarily used by surfers and 4WD’s. It’s completely unpatrolled by lifeguards and Professor Andy Short from Sydney University (and my PhD supervisor) rates it as the highest wave energy beach in Australia, at least during southerly waves. It’s also known for its’ rips and while most pictures I have of rip currents on this beach are taken from the northern headland, this one is taken from the top of the sand dune where the walking track from the car park meets the beach.

Right in front is a classic channel rip current with a deep feeder trough/current flowing from right to left and turning almost straight out to sea in a narrow rip-neck – the green dark gap between white water. Surfers would use this to help them get out the back quicker. Intrepid bathers and swimmers would be better off swimming in the whitewater of the breaking waves to the far left and right.

Straight onto the beach and straight into the rip…