01
Awareness, never a safety verdict
RipCo shows likely rips and conditions. It will never tell you a beach is “safe” or decide whether you should enter the water.
BEACH DAYS, WITH PERSPECTIVEThe flags
The flags
come first.
Technology can help you read the water. The people watching it in person always come first.
Between the flags.
Before anything else.
Before anything else.
Find the red and yellow flags Listen to the patrol Use RipCo for awareness
Our commitmentA clearer picture.
A clearer picture.
Not a green light.
Six principles behind every screen. Shaped by interviews with Surf Life Saving NSW patrol members; an independent commitment, not an endorsement.
02
Keep your eyes on the water
Use the app alongside your own judgement and the advice of lifesavers and lifeguards. The screen is only one part of the picture.
03
Calm water can hide a current
A gap in breaking waves can be a rip. A calm-looking surface is not a reason to assume the water is safe.
04
Every camera has limits
Detection can miss a rip or flag one that isn’t there. Confidence is a model reading, not a guarantee. Assume a rip could be present.
05
Always swim between the flags
Red and yellow flags mark the patrolled swimming area. If there are no flags and no patrol, do not swim.
06
The patrol has the final word
Follow the lifesavers and lifeguards on duty. Their advice and any beach closure override everything the app shows.
BUILT INTO THE APPA small reminder.
A small reminder.
A big responsibility.
“Check the flags” lives under the beach information. When the patrol status isn’t known, the app says so.
Patrol unknown,
check the flags
check the flags
The Live badge means the camera is streaming. It does not mean rip detection is available at that beach.
Explore the real app screen
Know before you goCaught in a rip?
Caught in a rip?
Keep calm. Conserve energy.
There is no single escape that works in every rip. These are options to consider, based on Surf Life Saving Australia’s guidance.
Stay calm. Float.
Conserve your energy. Floating with the current may bring you back to a shallow sandbank.
Signal for help
Raise an arm and call out to attract attention. Keep yourself afloat while waiting for help.
Don’t fight the current
Avoid exhausting yourself by trying to swim directly against the rip.
Consider swimming sideways
If you can, swim parallel to shore or towards breaking waves. This may help you escape the current.
Learn from the people who know the water.Read the BeachSafe rip current guide
The harder questionsUseful technology.
Useful technology.
Honest limits.
Who owns the camera? What can the assistant say? How reliable is a report? A safety tool should make its limits easy to find.
01Whose feed it is
Detection runs on a public camera at Palm Beach that already streams to the web. The site and the app do not claim any relationship with its operator, and the footer says so. Reading a third party’s stream is the one arrangement that has to be settled before launch.
02What the assistant is allowed to do
It answers questions about conditions and beach safety and is built to point you to the flags and the lifesavers. It is not designed to give a swim or don’t-swim verdict, and the answer to a question it cannot answer is to check with the patrol.
03Reports from strangers
Sightings come from other beachgoers and are unverified. A report is a reason to look, not a fact. If lifesavers or lifeguards close the beach, their call overrides anything in the app.
04Trusting the screen too much
The risk with any safety tool is that people stop looking at the water. Three design choices push against that: no safe state, a confidence figure on every outline so the model’s uncertainty is visible, and the flags line under each card.