The Next Wave

Sunday January 22, 2006

"Big Wednesday"

There was, of course, the movie "Big Wednesday", what I consider probably the best of the fictional surf movies out there (of course there is "Blue Crush" ... a movie my wife likes almost as well (but she also prefers Big Wednesday), but very recently, there was a series of swells which lit up the California coast, the best day being Dec 21st (surprise, surprise ... a Wednesday). To get an idea of how some of that looked, here are some pictures. Have there been other days with waves this size ? Sure ... pretty much every winter. The difference this time was the swell direction which instead of coming from the North West (as usual this time of year), the swell came pretty much right out of the West and as a result, breaks all up and down the coast came alive (with some amazing results). That coupled with favorable winds made it a great day to surf (or for most of us, look at the surf). I almost went out, but after watching a couple of guys spend half an hour paddling into the surf (and not getting anywhere except about a 1/2 mile further down the coast), about a dozen broken surfboards and scores of rescues, I figured it was better to just watch from the shore.

The interesting thing about this series of storms in San Diego from mid-December through early January is what it's done to the topography of the breaks around town. A lot of sand has been moved around and as a result, a lot of my favorite breaks have changed (sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse). Waves are quite susceptible to a number of factors, the underwater topography is just one of them, but when sand shifts, rocks get exposed and because of changes at breaks further away modify the currents running alongside the shore, what used to be a world-class break might become nothing worth surfing.

Will those favorite breaks return to normal ? Will the sand come back. Sure... in pretty much all cases, year after year, most do. There are exceptions of course ... I remember going to Black's Beach below Torrey Pines when I was a kid ... what is now a couple of famous peaks used to be a solid ridable break from end to end ... but with the collapse of areas of the cliffs, changes to water runoff because of building on top of the cliffs and the shifting of sand as a result into the deep water canyon off the coast (never to return), the old Black's Beach will likely never be the same (at least not in sub-geological terms). Unfortunately, while nature constantly moves sand about and generates these cycles of topography change and wave changes, what we do is more or less permanent. Case in point ... the Trestles Toll Road.

In Southern California, there is a proposal to build a toll road extension connecting highway 241 (an existing toll road) to Interstate 5. As a result, this road will likely completely change the flow of sediment which comes from the San Mateo creek, the natural way in which a surf area called Trestles is replenished and maintained. Trestles is considered one of the few "world-class" breaks in California and if this toll road is built not only will the wave quality be severely diminished (likely ruined) but the runoff will most likely result in further pollution in one of the last pristine areas we have left in Southern California.

<sigh>

So I don't normally do this, but if you are a surfer (or even if you aren't) and feel like this is yet another case where over-development in California is running rampant and destroying the delicate ecology along our coast, spread the word (and if you have the means, make your opinion known to those who have the power to "say no").