up in oxnard, theres a lot of coves. not much of a straight/long stretch of beach. Down here in Mission Beach we do have what you're talking about. Who TF knows tho.. gotta be a marine floor specialist on this forumme. paging frost?!?!
Could it be depth? Pacific drops off pretty quick. Related question. On the Gulf Coast when the surf gets big people paddle out to a second sandbar that is about 10 ft deep. Why is there no second sandbar on the east coast?
I have never heard of people paddling out to a second sandbar to surf on the east coast but I could be wrong I guess.
wouldn't say there are no 2nd bars...maybe just closer together though, not anything like ocean beach. this past summer at high tide would have to paddle out to 2nd bar in frisco area in order to get breaking waves. watched a lot of waves in protected area of ccod over the years of visiting truro. definitely a lof of 2nd bars out there. but agree, it's not like what ive read of OB being like a 2 mile paddle to the outter bar. i would guess bathymetry is a reason. if make it stop were still around he could probably splain
When the second Sandbar is working on the gulf, it can be a thing of beauty. It is never too far out and often if it is breaking at the second and you're on a LB, you can ride it all the way in. Unfortunately it's been a little while, it was working for a couple days last week with the front, mainly pretty sloppy but caught a good clean up in the afternoon. Been pretty lame this year compared to 2 and 3 winters ago.
There are multiple bars round these here parts. Inside always works, mid bar works with a little swell, 3rd needs a good swell to fire.
difference is the jettys/groins. they stop the flow of sand,which is good and bad.good because that stretch of land could possibly disappear after a few big storms,bad because it stops the sand from shifting horizontally or something like that. places like ocean beach and Puerto Escondido its just wide open so the sand has the chance to spread out as its sucked back out to sea.i could be wrong idk
Sandbars have to do with localized currents and waves. You really cant generalize "east coast/west coast" because it's dependent upon specific, local conditions. If you think about it, why are there spots in your area that are consistently better than others? So many variables... Large scale comparisons might be "emergent/submergent" coastlines and the distance to continental shelves. Small scale comparisons might mean localized winds, currents and nearshore bathymetry. Sandbars are constantly appearing and disappearing... shifting north and south... moving in and out... depending upon wind and wave/swell direction and period. The more variable the conditions (short period swells, close proximity to storms/wind fetch, speed and direction of moving low pressure systems), the faster things change. Even the size of sand grains matters... fine sand or coarse sand... large grains and pebbles... stones... even cobble sized, reef building stones... all are found on both coasts. I'd say really study your local and figure out what's going on. That will answer a lot of your question.
I remember back when i was little and just learning to surf, my go to spot had two bars. If memory serves me right it basically always broke on the outer bar. But the more power it had the better chance you had of connecting to the inside and basically getting a roll in into another wave
brevard county from patrick afb all the way down past melbourne beach has 1. inside/shorebreak/coquina rock 2. midbreak that usually trips up most swell depending on tide 3 outside sand bar that breaks on bigger days
This is mostly true. The coquina rock reef is more in the Satellite area than anything. It’s also in the IHB and Conova area. Most other spots are mostly sand with very little rock / reef.
The outside bars here, the way outside sandbars, are south of the inlets and piers, where there are mid break bars along way in, and a second trough, and a third bar inside before a quick drop off before shore. This has nothing to do with the reefs. They just dump and pump a lot of sand around here to keep the condos from falling into the ocean. It ends up drifting south. Or gets dredged, or pumped south via sand transfer plants (Pumphouse), they suck up sand, and are connected to pipes that go under the inlet and then over to the other side where it gets dumped out a big pipe into the shorebreak and then heads south again.
