Reflective + bars & rips beaches have a relatively straight, moderately steep, narrow, and coarser sand, cuspated high-tide beach, fronted by a lower gradient, relatively featureless intertidal zone.
They have a wave dominated low-tide surf zone usually characterised by bar and rip morphology. Breakers are typically 0.5 to 1.5 m high (height increases with onshore winds). At high tide waves break across a narrow continuous surf zone. At low tide a wider surf zone has rips (spacing 100-150 m). At high tide for safest bathing stay inshore of the breaker zone. At low tide waves may plunge on shallow bars and deeper rip channels may present stronger seaward flowing rip currents.
Typical reflective + bars & rips beaches include: Oruati Beach East Cape.
