Terrible news, especially that his family, partner and friends witnessed it all.
Having grown up at the Sunny Coast and bodyboarded for about 20 years, I've been in a few. Just remember, a rip will usually look calm, except for some turbulent water on the surface (not waves, just little peaks), it is usually sandy coloured but can look like deep green/blue (i.e. deep water), and usually you can see waves breaking on either side of it (but not into/onto it). Also, bigger swell, stronger the rip.
Always stand/sit on the beach for about 5 minutes and watch what is happening, watch the biggest waves of the set, where they break, what happens to the water, watch what happens when the water washes up onto the beach, where does it go from there, is there is sideways sweep, does the water flow out through a rip/channel back out to sea, look for a channel between the shore breakers and the waves out the back - what is the water in that deeper section doing. You'll be able to get a picture after 5-10 mins, know where to safely swim, and where the cool waves are!
