June 2022 (ROTM #162) Woonona Beach, NSW, Australia

This one is a little different. The other day I popped into a local store (Poppy’s at Thirroul!) in the Northern Illawarra near where I live and noticed they were selling drink coasters with a picture of a local beach – Woonona Beach. It’s a nice pic and I think it makes an excellent coaster, but what really stood out to me was the great channelised rip current right in the middle of the beach! The big dark green gap between the breaking waves!

So that got me thinking about potential rip current education and using images like this to promote rip current safety and identification – subliminally even. This is kind of similar to the picture of rips at Bondi in signs at Sydney Airport (ROTM #99) and the Bondi Junction Railway Station (ROTM #100). If the rips are there in the images, why not use them for educational purposes?

 The possibilities are endless!

Buy a beer coaster, learn about rips