July 2026 (ROTM#211) Woolamai Beach, Victoria, Australia

Last month I introduced Woolamai Beach on Phillip Island to the Rip of the Month and mentioned that the beach has some of the biggest rip currents I’ve ever seen. This picture was taken from the balcony of the Woolamai Beach Surf Life Saving Club and shows one of the rips along the beach – the big dark green gap in the middle of the picture - but it still doesn’t do the rip justice. The waves were about 2-2.5 metres high and breaking more than 100 metres offshore. The rip was about 30 to 40 metres wide and it was flowing hard! And there was one of these rips every few hundred metres along the beach. It’s just an extremely dangerous beach with almost nowhere to swim safely. At least the water was warm though (in early March).

I tried to put in some dye and I put about 3 x as much dye in my bucket as I normally do, but couldn’t wade too far out as I was barely able to stand up against the current when I was at waste depth. And the dye diluted so fast it barely lasted before reaching the waves!