March 2009 (ROTM #3) Bronte Beach, Sydney, NSW Australia

Bronte Beach is a great beach, but it is also considered to be one of the most hazardous beaches in New South Wales, mostly because it almost always has a rip on the southern end called "The Bronte Express".

 This was taken in April 2008 during a fairly stormy day and it shows a distinct darker trough, or longshore feeder current, flowing from left to right (north to south) and then diverting offshore into the main part of the rip. You can clearly spot the rip by the dark gap between breaking waves. Due to the energetic wave conditions on the day, although this rip was channelised, it was on the verge of "popping out" and was starting to move laterally up and down the beach, which signifies the beginning of flash rip conditions. You can actually see streaks in the rip and turbulent clouds of water and sand just beyond the breakers in what is called the rip head, where the rip starts to slow down and decelerate.

 The scary thing about this picture is that the flags look like they were placed right in front of the rip! The picture is a bit deceptive, because they weren't, but the rip was starting to shift and flash around and the beach was closed shortly after the picture was taken. Not a good day for swimming. Surfing was bad too because of the strong onshore winds creating messy wind waves on top of the swell. The guys trying to soak up a tan must have been English.

The Bronte Express. Flag placement is tricky!