Rip Currents
One of the biggest dangers in surfing are rip currents. Many people get into trouble because they do not know what to do. However once you learn what they are and how to utilize them, they become a tool for you to use.
Ocean swell is, in short, energy passing through the water. The water doesn't move, just the same as if you were to flick a skipping rope, the rope doesn't move but the energy passes through it. When the open ocean swell hits the shallows, the energy pushes the water above it up and up until topples over itself, spilling water ahead and towards the beach.
Beaches are not normally flat; they have high points (sandbank) and low points. This effects where the waves break. Waves will break first in the shallow water, or over a sand bank.
Once the waves have broken, energy in the wave dissipates as sound, movement and friction, leaving behind a mass of slack water. The water which has been pushed up the beach by each wave now needs to find its own level.
The easiest route for all this water to drain out is either side of the sandbank. This creates a rip.
How can we spot a rip?
- Look for choppy patches, this is a good sign that water is running against swell coming in.
- Lack of waves, remember the rip will be going out through the deeper part of the beach
- Items drifting out to sea, wood and seaweed are all good signs.
- Fixed structures such as headlands, piers and breakwaters will have a permanent rip running along them.
