Tired yet?
SURF:
The term gluttony is looked down upon in our society, and
rightfully so; we shouldn’t take more than we need. But can you blame us these
past two weeks for surfing everyday due to our abundant surf?
With plenty of
surf on tap, it’s been a bright spot after the slow January to April we just
experienced. The only fly in ointment has been the winds lately. You don’t know
what it’s going to do. Either early SW winds or calm in the AM but breezy W
winds in the afternoon or a normal sea breeze. Unfortunately, it looks like the
winds will be an issue again this weekend with SW winds forecasted in the
mornings. So my free advice is to get on it early- like the dawn patrol- to
have any chance of semi-clean conditions.
As far as the surf goes, we had new
SW fill in today for head high surf and a complimentary NW windswell to go
along with it. That looks to be the case all weekend as the SW/NW combo hangs
around and the SW winds make your session dicey.
We have a better NW
groundswell showing late Sunday for chest high waves (along with the leftover
SW) and that will keep the surf truckin’ along for us. Water temps have also crept up into the 63
degree range.
And watch out for the tides this weekend as it’s around -1’ at
sunrise, up to 3.5’ after lunch, and down slightly to 2.5’ at sunset. And if
you’re wondering, sun comes up at 5:45 AM now and sets at 7:45 PM. That’s 14
hours of surfing if you can handle it.
FORECAST:
The NW on Sunday continues into Monday and is greeted by a
solid head high+ SW. Best combo spots will have overhead sets by Tuesday.
On it’s
heels is a smaller SW for Wednesday but we’ll still have shoulder high+ surf.
After that, the N and S Pacific hit the reset button and next weekend looks to
have waist to chest high SW.
Forecast charts show more activity off Antarctica
next week but it’s fairly unorganized. If it can get its’ act together, we
could see more shoulder high SW at the end of the month.
WEATHER:
It’s been a funny May so far as we haven’t had the true May
Gray yet but it’s been close. Cool conditions and less than calm winds have
made it feel like spring- just not the persistent cloud cover. That will be the
case through next week with off and on clouds, wind in the 15mph range, and
cool conditions. There may be some slight fluctuations to that forecast from
day to day but not much. Long story short- don’t expect rain and don’t expect
beach weather. Make sure to keep up to date on the latest storm conditions at Twitter/North County Surf.
BEST BET:
Monday through Wednesday with good combo swell. Beware the
winds though.
NEWS OF THE WEEK:
Seen all the sand lately at George’s beach, just south of
Cardiff reef? Thanks to a government sand replenishment project, acres of new
beach has been added from the inland lagoon. Now that the sand’s in place, there’s
been a lot of talk lately of how it’s going to affect the surf. New sandbars
hopefully? Will it wash away into offshore canyons? Maybe move N this summer
and impact Cardiff reef? No one seems to know but scientists are trying to find
out. Analysis from the University of California San Diego hopes to give us
insight on these projects. Here’s what they had to say…
New research is shedding light on how mechanically placed
sand on San Diego County beaches moves and its potential impacts. The study,
published in the journal Coastal Engineering, could help planners develop beach
nourishment projects that will reach their intended goals without causing
unintended problems. North San Diego County for instance has started a 50-year,
$160 million series of beach nourishments intended to combat flooding and
erosion, and provide recreational space for tourists.
The new study, conducted by researchers at the Scripps
Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, and
funded in part by California Sea Grant, analyzed four beach nourishment
projects in San Diego County to see how they fared in the years after the
nourishment. It provides a better understanding of how nourishment sand moves
in response to waves and currents, which could provide insight for more
effective beach nourishment projects in the future.
"There's a lot that is not known about how sand
moves," says Scripps postdoc Bonnie Ludka, who led the study. "If you
put sand on a beach, it won't just stay in one place. The question is, how long
does it stay where you want it? And as it moves, where does it go?"
For example, sand placed on Torrey Pines beach north of San
Diego in 2001 washed away in a single storm. Nourishment sand can also lead to
other unintended consequences, as happened at Imperial Beach, the site of the
largest beach nourishment in the study. There, 138 Olympic sized swimming pools
worth of sand were added to the beach in autumn of 2012. The sand moved both
north and south along the coast, and in 2016 contributed to the closure of the
Tijuana River estuary. The river lost its connection to the ocean, leading to extremely
concentrated pollution and hypoxia-loss of oxygen in the water that can cause
die-offs of fish and other aquatic species.
In the study, Ludka and colleagues studied the 2001 Torrey
Pines and 2012 Imperial Beach projects as well as beach nourishment projects at
Cardiff and Solana beaches done in 2012. Using ATVs, jet skis, and other tools,
the research team conducted regular surveys of each beach for over a decade to
create elevation maps accurate down to a few centimeters. Using these maps,
researchers could assess how the beach changed over time. Using a network of
buoys run by Scripps researchers and a numerical wave model they also had a
multi-decadal record of estimated wave conditions along the coast.
"These data allowed us to compare the behavior of the
nourished beach with how the beach behaved during unnourished times under
similar wave conditions," says Ludka.
Go with the flow
As noted in a previous study by the team, the size of the
sand grains made a big difference in how far and fast the sand moved. At Torrey
Pines, where sand similar to the native grain size was used for a nourishment
project in 2001, all the added sand washed offshore in just one storm, months
after it was placed. Coarser sand used at the other three projects in 2012 largely
stayed on the upper beach, even through the El Niño winter of 2015-16, which
brought exceptionally energetic waves to the coast.
The researchers also identified a pattern in sand movement
that followed the prevailing ocean currents in the area-in winter, the piles of
sand stretched southward, while in summer, the sand moved to the north.
Overall, the southerly movement won out, and at Imperial Beach contributed to
the clogging of the Tijuana Estuary, a couple kilometers south of the placement
region.
The study also shows that in some cases the total amount of
sand deposited or removed from a beach naturally was even larger than the
amounts of sand that were added during the nourishment projects.
Ludka says "We're still a long way from being able to
predict or model how these nourishments will evolve." But the careful
observations provided in this study give a good first indication of how future
projects might fare.
The sand budget
Why are sand nourishments needed in the first place? For one
thing, climate change is bringing higher sea levels, which could drown beaches
if they aren't able to retreat landward, whether due to an inability of the
beach to adjust or existing infrastructure. Natural or living shoreline
projects that build up or restore beaches and marshes are gaining attention as
a way to build resilience in the face of rising seas.
In addition, sand is a limited resource on California
beaches. Ludka explains that sand on beaches tends to come from two
places-rivers and eroding cliffs. Dams and cliff stabilization projects have
stifled sand contributions from both of these sources. She explains, "The
sand budget is like a bank account. The ocean is always making withdrawals. If
you don't add sand back into the system, the beaches will disappear."
The researchers also note that California has been adding
sand to beaches for decades, and in many cases the wide sandy beaches we know
were created artificially by the addition of sand dredged from harbors or other
construction projects. Ludka says, "In the future, we might have to make
difficult decisions about where we invest in sandy beaches, and where other
beaches are left to their fate determined by rising seas and limited sand
supplies."
PIC OF THE WEEK:
Considering how good Hurricane Marie was back in the summer
of 2014 (category 5 with 160mph winds), it should come as no surprise that
there are endless photos of firing surf on the internet. Like this secret spot
right in the heart of LA. Can you believe these unnamed spots still exist in a
city of 4 million people?! For other shots of secret spots here in So-Cal,
check out David Powell’s work here.
Keep Surfing,
Michael W. Glenn
Undaunted
Changing My Name To Yanny Laurel
Guinness World Record Holder For Longest Floater: 138’ For
25 Seconds
