Understanding
Rip Currants
Spot the danger,
escape the pull
What are rip currants?
Rip currents are powerful, narrow channels of water flowing rapidly away from the shore. They are a common hazard on beaches with breaking waves.
Why are they dangerous?
Rip currents are a serious hazard for beachgoers. The danger lies in their ability to pull swimmers away from the shore and the tendency for those who are unaware or unskilled to panic and tire themselves out by swimming directly against the flow. Due to these factors, rip currents are the leading cause of drowning deaths on Brunei's beaches.
How can they be spotted?
One of the best visual identifiers of a rip current is to look out for gaps between the waves. The calmer gap between waves may look safer for you to play without worry about waves over your head, but a small patch of calm water in an otherwise choppy sea is often a rip currant.
Look out for discolored water near the shore. Rip currants tend to drag large amounts of sand and sediment back out to sea with them, so many rip currants are easily identified by a noticeable jet of crud in the water extending a way from the shore.
Rip currants are also common in areas with sand bars (both surface and submerged), piers, jetties, groins, and anything else that sticks out from the beach that could catch a longshore current and cause it to start flowing from shore.
Where are rip currants located in Brunei?
-
Muara
-
Meragang
-
Berakas
-
Seri Kenangan
-
Telisai
-
Sungai Liang
-
Lumut
-
Seria
-
Panaga
-
Kuala Belait
The above beaches are low tide terrace beaches tend to occur when waves average about 1m and sand is fine to medium. They are characterized by a moderately steep beach face, which is joined at the low tide level to an attached bar or terrace, hence the name - low tide terrace. The bar usually extends between 20 to 50m seaward and continues alongshore, attached to the beach. It may be flat and featureless, have a slight central crest called a ridge, and may be cut every several tens of metres by small shallow rip channels, called mini rips.
At high tide when waves are less than 1 m, they may pass right over the bar and not break until the beach face, which behaves much like a reflective beach. At spring low tide, however, the entire bar is usually exposed as a ridge or terrace running parallel to the beach and waves break by plunging heavily on the outer edge of the bar.
At mid tide, waves usually break right across the shallow bar, when they are most likely to generate rip currants. The water is returned seaward, both by reflection off the beach face, especially at high tide, and via the mini rips, even if no rip channels are present. The rips, however, are usually shallow, ephemeral or transient meaning they will flow strongly for a few minutes then dissipate.
Myths and
facts of
Rip Currants
Myth 1: Rip currants pull swimmers under water.
Fact: Rip currents carry swimmers away from the beach.
Rip currents are surface currents. They are not "undertows" which explains Myth 1. An undertow is a short-lived, sub surface surge of water associated with wave action. It can drag you down, but it's not truly treacherous because you won't be held under for long. Just relax, hold your breath, and you will pop to the surface, often on the back side of the waves breaking near shore.
Myth 2: If a swimmer got caught in a powerful rip, the swimmer can be swept out to sea forever.
Fact: Even under the worst conditions, the swimmer won't be swept to the middle of the ocean, though it could be a long swim back to shore.
Most rip currents are part of a closed circuit, says Robert Anthony Dalrymple, a coastal engineer and rip current scientist at Johns Hopkins University. If you ride a rip current long enough - float along with it - you will usually be take back to shore by a diffuse weaker return flow.
The exception to this occurs during fierce storms during monsoon seasons in Brunei, when pounding surf sets up powerful longshore currents that shed turbulent eddies. The seaward-flowing arms of these swirling currents may look and feel like "rips", but they are not part of a circulation cell that will slowly carry you toward shore. Instead you'll be deposited outside of the surf-zone, sometimes a distance of multiple widths of it. When the surf is big, most people should stay out of the water.
Myth 3: If you don't see a rip current, you don't have to worry about one.
Fact: Rip currents can form instantaneously, in response to the interaction of a lot of waves coming together from many directions at once.
The wave-induced "flash" rips may last only a few minutes or they may pulse - wax and wane - over a longer period of time, says Bob Guza, a coastal oceanography professor at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, who has studied transient rip current formation in North Carolina and has had California Sea Grant support to study surf-zone dynamics, including rip currents. Flash rip currents are not as powerful or dangerous as other rips but they can nonetheless take people off guard and induce panic.
What measures are in place for dealing with Rip Currants in Brunei?
A collaborative approach has been used to manage the risk of rip currents. Supported by the National Beach Safety Taskforce, beach managers, and our corporate partners, we have successfully installed five rip current safety signs at beaches identified as drowning hotspots: Muara, Tanjong Batu, Meragang, Berakas, and Tungku. These signs serve as a valuable educational resource, informing beachgoers about rip currents, safety precautions, how to escape them, and the appropriate emergency numbers to call.
Open Water Survival Program
Our Open Water Survival Program directly tackles the inability to cope in difficulty, a key component of the drowning chain. The program's objective is to empower participants with vital water safety and survival swimming skills. By fostering safe practices and building confidence in and around water, we strive to achieve our ultimate goal: reducing drowning fatalities in Brunei.
