The big waves in California are beautiful! I surfed along the California central coast in the 1970s and early 1980s. On typical days, I would surf at least once per day at the point in Ventura, before or after work, or both. We surfers lived for the days of big waves. In a good year, the storms queue up from the North Pacific, hitting th…
The big waves in California are beautiful! I surfed along the California central coast in the 1970s and early 1980s. On typical days, I would surf at least once per day at the point in Ventura, before or after work, or both. We surfers lived for the days of big waves. In a good year, the storms queue up from the North Pacific, hitting the west coast every several days. Those years are awesome for surfers. The storms hitting Central and Southern California this winter so far are driving big waves but certainly not the biggest ever seen. The surfers (and onlookers) have showed up in force this year, continuing a cycle repeated for many decades. The flooding and damage is compounded by building on the coast, the mismanagement of water throughput California, the California geography, geology, climate and the nature of the Ocean. For example, the average person does not understand the sand cycles along the coast in Central and Southern California. The sand moves like a river to the south and literally pours into several massive sea canyons. An underwater video of this is worth watching, if anything to see the magnitude of the sand flow into these sea canyons. If the sand is not replenished by the rivers along the coast, as has resulted from the damming and flow control built during the 20th century, there is less and less sand for the beaches each year. This makes for smaller and smaller sandy beaches over time. Check out Malibu beach pictures from the 1920s and compare them to today. There is also a seasonal cycle where the sand moves onto the beaches during the summer and deeper into the water during the winter. All of this means that the Central and Southern California beaches have been significantly reduced in size over the last 100 years or so.
The big waves in California are beautiful! I surfed along the California central coast in the 1970s and early 1980s. On typical days, I would surf at least once per day at the point in Ventura, before or after work, or both. We surfers lived for the days of big waves. In a good year, the storms queue up from the North Pacific, hitting the west coast every several days. Those years are awesome for surfers. The storms hitting Central and Southern California this winter so far are driving big waves but certainly not the biggest ever seen. The surfers (and onlookers) have showed up in force this year, continuing a cycle repeated for many decades. The flooding and damage is compounded by building on the coast, the mismanagement of water throughput California, the California geography, geology, climate and the nature of the Ocean. For example, the average person does not understand the sand cycles along the coast in Central and Southern California. The sand moves like a river to the south and literally pours into several massive sea canyons. An underwater video of this is worth watching, if anything to see the magnitude of the sand flow into these sea canyons. If the sand is not replenished by the rivers along the coast, as has resulted from the damming and flow control built during the 20th century, there is less and less sand for the beaches each year. This makes for smaller and smaller sandy beaches over time. Check out Malibu beach pictures from the 1920s and compare them to today. There is also a seasonal cycle where the sand moves onto the beaches during the summer and deeper into the water during the winter. All of this means that the Central and Southern California beaches have been significantly reduced in size over the last 100 years or so.