About the Simulator:
The Rip Current Simulator (Patent Pending) was designed to demonstrate how a rip current works by simulating one of the several beach topographies that can cause one in a tabletop, interactive format. Almost all of the rip current safety-related materials available today consist of signage, pamphlets and videos. This display creates an actual rip current in a water-filled container that allows the user to actively interact with it by placing “swimmers” in different locations and watching how the rip current carries them “out to sea” and demonstrates that “swimming” parallel to the shore will return them back to the beach.
The simulator consists of a 2-foot square plastic box that is 8″ high. Inside this box is a custom-manufactured beach topography that is used to create the rip current effect. This topography consists of a beach line that slopes down, forms a channel parallel to the beach, then rises again to form a sandbar that has a channel cut through it. From the sandbar, the bottom then slopes off into the deep end of the box.
The simulator is filled with approximately 5 gallons of water. Located in the deep end of the box are 2 small submerged water pumps that move water from the deep end towards the beach. As the water flows over the sandbar, it enters the channel and then exits back out into the deep end through the channel cut through the sandbar, creating the rip current. Users can place simulated swimmers (ping-pong balls, rubber ducks, etc.) in the water at different locations and see, in real time, how the rip current works.
The simulator is designed to be easily transported and setup. It weighs 20 pounds empty and 60 pounds when full of water. It is powered by either a plug-in wall-wart-type power supply or the built-in rechargeable battery, both of which are included. The display has a removable top cover that can be used as a white board for drawing diagrams, etc., to supplement the learning experience and the exterior of the display is decorated with several graphics relating to rip current safety.
You can download the complete User’s Manual by clicking the link below. It covers set-up, take-down and battery & pump care with lots of pictures.
USER’S MANUAL (click to view)
About The Inventor
My name is Jeff Wheat and as a kid, I grew up living near the beach and became an avid snorkeler and diver, hitting the water every chance I got. That experience gave me a good understanding of how a rip current works and how to avoid them. In 1999, I was hired by Los Alamos National Laboratory as an Engineering Technologist where I became known as the guy who could take an idea scribbled on the back of a napkin and have a working prototype ready in a couple of weeks. In 2021, I retired from the Lab and moved back to Navarre, FL to spend time with my father (former leader of the Blue Angels!). To occupy some of my free time, I helped out at a local children’s science center and was asked if I could build an interactive display showing how a rip current works. In true fashion, I had a working prototype for them in a week and ended up building several more displays through a grant. When word got out through news stories and social media about how well they worked, I received several purchase requests from local water safety organizations and was encouraged to make them available nation-wide as deaths from rip current drownings is widespread. The rest is history!