Beachgoers’ ability to identify rip currents at a beach in situ

Abstract

Abstract. Rip currents (rips) are the leading cause of drowning on surf beaches worldwide. A major contributing factor is that many beachgoers are unable to identify rip currents. Previous research has attempted to quantify beachgoers' rip spotting ability using photographs of rip currents, without identifying whether this usefully translates into an ability to spot a rip current in situ at the beach. This study is the first to compare beachgoers ability to spot rip currents in photographs and in situ at a beach in New Zealand (Muriwai Beach) where a channel rip current was present. Only 22 % of respondents were able to identify the in situ rip current. The highest rates of success were for males (33 %), New Zealand residents (25 %), and local beach users (29 %). Of all respondents who were successful at identifying the rip current in situ, 62 % were active surfers/bodyboarders and 28 % were active beach swimmers. Of the respondents who were able to identify a rip current in two photographs, only 34 % were unable to translate this into a successful in situ rip identification, which suggests that the ability to identify rip currents by beachgoers is worse than reported by previous studies involving photographs. This study highlights the difficulty of successfully identifying a rip current in reality and that photographs are not necessarily a useful means of teaching individuals to spot rip currents. It advocates for the use of more immersive and realistic education strategies, such as the use of virtual reality headsets showing moving imagery (videos) of rip currents in order to improve rip spotting ability.

Characteristics and beach safety knowledge of beachgoers on unpatrolled surf beaches in Australia

“…It should be acknowledged that the results of this surveybased study are subject to a variety of well-known response biases that are inherent in many types of questionnaires, such as agreement bias, prestige bias, and confirmation bias (Choi and Pak, 2005;Ménard et al, 2018;Davies, 2020). These types of bias also apply to previous studies involving surveys of beachgoer safety knowledge (Sherker et al, 2010;Williamson et al, 2012;Caldwell et al, 2013;Brannstrom et al, 2014;Fallon et al, 2018;Llopis et al, 2018;Locknick and Houser, 2021;Pitman et al, 2021). These studies were all conducted on beaches with lifeguards, with the exception of Sherker et al (2010), who did not discriminate results from respondents on patrolled and unpatrolled beaches.…”

“…6e) could be interpreted as a rip current, when in fact it was not. These limitations have previously been identified by Hatfield et al (2013), Ménard et al (2018), and Pitman et al (2021), who have all suggested that future rip identification skills should be assessed with the use of video.…”

“…The images shown in Photo 2 and Photo 5 in Fig. 6 were also used by Pitman et al (2021) in a study of New Zealand beachgoers. In their study, 31 % of beachgoers were able to identify a rip current in both photographs and 26 % could identify a rip current in only one photograph.…”

“…However, the ability to follow this message can be problematic owing to the logistical reality that lifeguard services are not present at all beaches, or at all times. Furthermore, several studies have found that although most beachgoers are aware of the meaning and importance of the red and yellow beach flags, many still choose not to swim between them when they visit patrolled beaches, or often choose to swim at unpatrolled beaches (White and Hyde, 2010;Williamson et al, 2012;Ménard et al, 2018;Pitman et al, 2021).…”

“…Existing studies typically describe the extent and characteristics of beach drowning (Silva-Cavalcanti et al, 2018;Koon et al, 2021;Segura et al, 2022), particularly in relation to strong, offshore flowing rip currents (Castelle et al, 2016), which are considered to be the main hazard for swimmers and bathers on surf beaches (Gensini and Ashley, 2010;Woodward et al, 2013;Brighton et al, 2013;Arozarena et al, 2015;Brewster et al, 2019;Cooney et al, 2020). Other studies have conducted surveys to describe the demographics, beach safety knowledge and behaviour of various types of beachgoers (Ballantyne et al, 2005;Williamson et al, 2012;Clifford et al, 2018;Sotés et al, 2018), often in relation to the presence of lifeguards, beach safety flags, and the rip current hazard (Sherker et al, 2010;Caldwell et al, 2013;Brannstrom et al, 2014;Fallon et al, 2018;Ménard et al, 2018;Locknick and Houser, 2021;Pitman et al, 2021).…”