July 2024 (ROTM#187) Elizabeth Beach, NSW, Australia

Flash rips are over in a flash. Hence the name.

Every year I take my 3rd year undergraduate coastal class on a 3 day field trip to do some measurements on beaches on the mid-north NSW coast. Little did I know that one of my students this year (Leo Kostas) was a drone enthusiast who put up his drone to take some shots at the beaches. Good thing as well because he managed to capture this great aerial picture of a flash rip – the most elusive kind of rip current. It’s the cloud of suspended sand heading out to sea about a third of the way up from the bottom of the picture.

 Flash rips don’t last long, perhaps just a minute or so, and are formed purely by random large waves breaking. The problem is, they are unpredictable and are hard to see from the shoreline. So while it helps to have a drone taking pictures, that’s not what people see from the beach. Flash rips are more likely to occur when waves are a bit messy so it pays to be just a little bit more aware if you’re in the water in these conditions.

Leo was a great student and clearly has a lot of potential!