The selfie is a modern phenomena which can have tragic consequences. Temporary lack of self-awareness and concentration can lead to slips and falls; chasing the perfect selfie can lead people to visit risky locations at hazardous times.

Various types of coloured dye have been used in rip currents for many years as an educational tool to help people better understand the speed and trajectory of this common beach hazard. It’s encouraging to see a new study by Indonesian researchers who released dye into a rip current at Drini Beach.

More than two hundred beach safety professionals and researchers from all over the world participated in the 2021 Beach Safety Technology Conference, "an international forum exploring the use and development of technology for ocean lifeguards, beach safety professionals and researchers." The free conference was hosted for free by the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Beach Safety Research Group and Smart Beaches.

Beach drowning among people from multicultural communities continues to be a major concern in Australia. Unfortunately, few studies have attempted to quantify how different multicultural communities interact with the beach, what their swimming ability is like and what they understand about common beach safety practices and hazards.

We reviewed 146 coastal drowning studies from around the world in an attempt to characterise the peer-reviewed scientific literature in the field. This study aimed to identify the key concepts, findings, evidence and gaps in the science in order to help guide future research and inform prevention activities.

Surf Zone Injuries occurred more on warm sunny days with low wind due to increased beachgoer numbers and hazard exposure and were mostly associated with waves approaching the coastline straight on.

Lifeguard data has been used in drowning research since the 1980s, and a few challenges have previously been identified. However, what and how that information is recorded hasn’t been formally examined until now.

Dr. Andrew Schmidt from Lifeguards Without Borders presented preliminary results from the International Lifeguard Data Collection Survey at the World Conference on Drowning Prevention in Durban, South Africa - thanks Andrew!

Back in 2017 at the World Conference on Drowning Prevention in Vancouver, a group of us lifeguard-researcher-nerd types were talking at the International Drowning Researcher’s Alliance (IDRA) meeting.

An important component of our NSW Government Water Safety Fund project ‘Identifying Rip Currents and Beach Usage at Unpatrolled Beach Locations’ was to conduct face to face surveys of beachgoers visiting the unpatrolled beaches monitored by the remote trail cameras.

Back in 2019, Rob Brander and Dr Mitch Harley from the UNSW Sydney Water Research Laboratory (WRL) received funding from the NSW Government Department of Justice Water Safety Fund (alas, this funding scheme is now defunct) for the project ‘Identifying Rip Currents and Beach Usage at Unpatrolled Beach Locations’.

There’s been a bit of a lull in rip current research lately, but an exciting new study led by Sebastian Pitman of the University of Canterbury in New Zealand was recently published in the Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences.