Anybody know what the plans / status is for fixing all the late 2009 storm damage. I mainly surf from Cape May to AC and there are 8' drops all along this area of the coast. Some areas still have rebar sticking out of the beach. With the weather the way its been can't help things much. I hope the replenishment does not hurt some of the better breaks. I
I belive they are done at wildwood . I havent been by there in a long time but last time is was in OC I saw the Dredging equipment up the north end of the beach . I heard they hope to have it all done weather permiting before memorial day weekend
how often do they have to do this in JERSEY and MD? every couple years? What are the effects? They just fill in and flatten out the inside areas of the shore break so its easier for the tourists to wade and walk out?
It depends on how bad coastal erossion is. I know when wildwood looses alot of sand Stone Harbor gets some of it. Most of the time if the erossion is not a significant amount its will replenish itself in a natural cycle. Sometime when its there is alot of storms we have to help nature out. It will fix it self but being a tourist town they have to make the beaches look nice and safe for the public and vacationers
Worth a look All too often the approach to maintaining a beachfront is misdirected. They take a land based approach when maybe they should consider an ocean side approach like this: http://www.coastalmanagement.com.au/R&D/reef_surfing/ I've always liked this approach: View full size here: http://www.coastalmanagement.com.au/projects/NGCBPS/info_sheet/Construction.pdf
i saw this a few years ago. great idea and a win win for everyone invested at the beach, but i have to say its a difficult thing to convince a bunch of old stodgy councilmen to accept a "hippie surfer" idea like this one, when the so called army corp of engineers has the best possible solution, which is to pump sand, and more sand, and more sand until the end of time. it seems like the only answer they have. I wonder if the cost is the same, and if so what's the loss if they use this alternative? Its too bad surfing isn't as accepted here as it is in Australia, becuase even if this didnt work, its worht the shot because nothing else seems to work.
I know the latest replenishment effort in Long Branch lasted about a year, maybe a little more. This time they tried to build a broad sand "point" that would serve as a feeder beach for adjacent beaches. It did what it was supposed to do for the short term, and kept the ACE from burying most of the breaks in town, but today it's a straight beach again. Whether it was a success or failure depends on your perspective, I guess. I don't want to say too much because I've been blasted before for talking about the project in a public forum.
in the eyes of the ACE, i'd assume they'd consider it a success. There is considerably more beach from the "feeder beach" all the way to pier village area, even after taking the beating of 2-3 noreasters. in the eyes of a surfer, it was a complete disaster. three of my favorite waves are ruined, and haven't really shown any signs of coming back. although, i did see this... http://espn.go.com/action/surfing/blog/_/post/4863416 2nd half of video... i actually checked there that day for sh*ts, and saw balaram pulling into closeout lefts north of what used to be the main peak. he was just doing it to get shots though, and he was definitely getting them. this must have been way after they were shooting this video, because that looks like the morning and i didn't show up until around 12-1. me and my buddy got it near perfect that day all alone a bit north of there on the incoming all the way 'til dark.
Re: Artificial Reefs The Mid Atlantic unlike Florida, Hawaii, and California, does not have either the population of surfers, or enough people who aspire to the beach life so the likelihood of reefs coming to this area is slim at best. Spending a lot of money for reefs to create surf in black ball areas seems pointless to city commissioners. Cities often defer to the Corps of Engineers because thats the way its always been. It is rare to find a commissioner who is a trailblazer, and when you do, they are usually out voted by the other 4 or 6 members of the committee. Getting involved in your local area politically is highly recommended. Whether thats Surfrider, Center for Inland Bays, political party, etc. Rehoboth Beach did beach replenishment a few years ago and killed what little surf was there. Then it crept up the beach and killed Gordons Pond. To add insult to injury, they used the cheaper sand closer to shore filled with stones instead of using the offshore more granular sand. Sending many more beachgoers to the ER with cuts on their feet than in years past. Bottom line is we are outnumbered by people who don't surf and only appreciate the beach as a strip of sand on a shoreline with which to sit in their beach chairs and build sand castles. Until more surfers get involved in the system and voice their opinion, this is not likely to change in the near future. If trash washes up on the beach, everyone complains, if a surf spot dies, only a relativly few (and mostly silent) surfers complain. Get involved. Reach out to business'. Build coalitions and get a reef built. Then watch the entire surf community sit on your new favorite break that works on any 2'-10' swell. But that would be a nice problem to have.
do they referbish OCMD? And when do they do it cause i can ride my bike to uptown in two miles and it would be nice if it was breaking a little
ocmd has a long term contract to do beach replenishment every 4 years - it will be done this spring at some point hopefully we get a good late spring storm to put some the sand back into the right places after the sand pumping is done.
So they didnt do it last year cause most of the breaks were gone. barley any broke unless it was waist high
If the people's money is going to be spent on beach replenishment then the people should have access to those beaches, i.e., the people should not be de facto excluded by parking permit restrictions, nuisance expensive parking meetings (expensive and needing to be refed every 60 minutes or less), inadequate parking accommodations, restricted access by use of gates, etc. If the people do not have access then the chief beneficiaries (e.g., house, condo, apt, hotel) should pay for beach replenishment via a property tax surcharge that covers the entire cost of the replenishment (federal, state and local).
