February 2025 (ROTM#194) Biscarosse Beach, France

Watch out for the fence. Then the rip.

For years I have been working with some excellent colleagues based in Bordeaux, France on a variety of beach safety research topics – Bruno Castelle and Jeoffrey Dehez. They have provided amazing blend of physical and social science expertise to studying the rip current hazard along beaches in the Landes region of France’s Atlantic south coast. They are also surfers and Jeoffrey sent me this recent picture of Biscarosse Beach. That section of coast has some stunning beaches that are absolutely packed with holidaymakers in the summer and surfers pretty much year found.

 The rip current should be reasonably obvious if you’ve been following my ‘white is nice, green is mean’ and ‘look for dark gaps’ mantra. The rip is right in the middle of the breaking waves. I’m not sure what the wooden fenceposts are doing – perhaps trying to re-establish some coastal dunes as an erosion control. Maybe it’s a good management technique to stop people swimming in rips…..