Beach Safety

Nova Scotia is blessed with beautiful beaches. These beaches, however, experience some of the most powerful surf on the eastern seaboard. There is only a limited amount of time on the beaches for Nova Scotians to experience and learn how the ocean works. Due to this limited time most Nova Scotians and travellers to Nova Scotia have minimal knowledge of the dangers the surf has to offer.

Surf Awareness

Surf or waves are formed by winds blowing over the ocean generally caused by storms at sea. There are three factors that affect the size of the waves;

strength of the wind
length of time which the wind blows
the distance over which the wind blows (fetch)

When waves approach the shore, they approach in a group of waves called "SETS." Sets are swells that are produced by storms at sea and travel across the ocean. These sets are larger than your average waves produced by a storm. The number of waves produced in sets and lulls between are consistent for a given swell but varies between swells. As the waves approach shore two things happen. First, the wave slows due to the friction with the ocean bottom. Second, the wave raises (wave height increases) and eventually breaks when the water is shallow enough. There are three different types of waves:

Dumpers or Plunging Waves
These waves occur when waves encounter and abrupt change in depth (from deep to very shallow) and break with emence force. These usually occur at low tide when there is less water for the wave to break into or at beaches where the slope of the beach is steep. They can easily slam swimmers to the bottom (sand, rocks, coral...etc).

Spilling or Rolling Waves
These waves occur when the change from deep to shallow is more gradual. When these waves break, the wave peaks and the water spills down the face of the wave, along the length of the beach. Although less intense than the "dumpers" they are still powerful and can knock swimmers over and hold them under.

Surging Waves
Surging wave may not actually break as they approach shore, but simply surge up onto the beach/rocks and then quickly flow back out to sea. They can be particularly dangerous to young/infant swimmers as they can knock them off their feet and wash them out to deep water.

Rogue Waves
Although under certain circumstances abnormally large waves, called episodic waves of 100 feet plus, can occur; the concept of rogue waves is widely misused and misunderstood. Most of us will never see a episodic wave, such as a tsunami, as they only occur in certain areas and under rare conditions. What the public normally mistakes as a rogue wave are simply a large set of waves in a swell. Swimmers or anyone walking near the shore must always remember that the size of the next wave is unpredictable.

Currents

Movement of the water coming on to the beach from waves cause certain on-shore currents commonly known as rip currents (sometimes referred to as "rip-tides", "undertow", "wash" or "run out"). Rip currents are mainly caused by an outward flow of water that is returning to the sea which form by waves washing up on shore. After washing on shore, gravity forces the water to return to sea. Depending on the force of the wave, beach conditions and location of sandbars under the surface, the water that is returning to sea may accumulate in one concentrated area, causing a strong current at an isolated zone of the beach. The larger the waves washing up, the stronger and more dangerous the rip currents will be. Rip currents can stay in the same place for long periods of time (6 months to a year), travel along the length of the beach, or suddenly open at any time or location along the beach. Here are some signs to help you distinguish a rip current:

waves breaking further out on either side of the rip
discolored water caused by the turning up of the sand
rippled appearance where the water is calm

How to Escape from a Rip Current

DON’T PANIC
poor/ tired swimmers should swim parallel to shore approximately. 30 meters then return to shore
strong swimmers should swin at a 45 degree angle across the rip in the same direction as the side/latteral current
if the current is too strong for you and you require assistance from a lifeguard raise one of your arms straight directly above your head.

Tides

Tides have a large influence on currents around beaches as well. Generally the seas reach their highest level on shore twice a day. The average interval between 2 successive tides is 12 hours and 25 min. As the tide drops there are many salt water lagoons that will empty out to stay level with the ocean which in turn cause tidal rips. As the tide runs out the large amounts of water that was brought into the lagoons must return to the sea which causes currents to flow like rivers. As the tide turns once again this causes the same effect as the water rushes in to fill the lagoons. An example of this would be the channel at Rainbow Haven Beach.

Red and Yellow Flags

Any of the Provincial beaches which are supervised by the Nova Scotia Lifeguard Service (NSLS) use internationally recognized lifesaving flag system. The red and yellow flags are used to identify to the public the safest location on the beach to swim. The NSLS does many rescues each year with the majority of the rescues occurring outside the flagged area.

What makes the flagged area the safest?

The flagged area is always supervised by a professional trained lifeguard (10 - 6pm) during the summer months.
Lifeguards set up the flags in the least dangerous area on the beach where no rips or other hazards are present.
The public need not worry about passing jetskiers, seadooers, surfers, and kyackers as such craft are not permitted to travel between the red and yellow flags.

Nova Scotia's Peak Danger Times