Say Goodbye to Surfing in NJ

hmmm - doesnt the current OCNJ plan stop at 14th?

 

We need to get off high horse. It took mother nature 6 hours to destroy what it took man decades to control. With the predicted hurricanes this season it will most likely be a spit in the ocean. Use the money for dunes and such. Just my two pennies.

 

I love pissing into the wind because I get piss like all over myself. The best is when the piss sprays on my lips and face because it makes me feel smart like an engineer.

 

Let the beach back in naturally and stop people from rebuilding homes on the ocean. Let them collect the insurance money and buy the lot from them and make it public preserved beach land My 2 cents.

 

Exactly! Pretty f*cking simple. Nature wins every time so respect it's power, back off and back up! Anything other then adjusting our ocean front boundaries and compromising by getting the f*ck out of the way is futile.

 

Nags Head did a beach renourishment two summers ago, It destroyed all the sand bars but the spots they started early in the summer had a wave by the end of the summer early fall. It made for a summer full of shorepound but the bars came back

 

yes, but in the early 90's, they just stopped...no tapering, nothing. one street had 100yds of beach, the next one had water under the boardwalk. it was very abrupt & i doubt that'll happen this time around.

 

for more than 20 years, bud.
clearly the way they "engineer" the beaches up in monmouth is different than how they do it down here in cape may county.
BUT...the simple truth of my statement is proven by yours...& i think you're exaggerating about the 2-3 years. all storms relocate sand, calm summer waves push it back in (if you survey the same beach in the winter & in the summer, the slope won't be the same...beaches are steeper in the winter & flatter in the summer). that's the way it works. i can understand being upset about beach replenishment b/c of the recurring outlandish expense or the fact that it destroys complex intertidal ecosystems..those are valid concerns. but b/c it "destroys" a beach break? it'll be back; it always comes back.

 

Coastal developments are the cause of beach erosion AND the case for "replenishment".

I would encourage anyone who lives in MD to read about the current state of Assateague. It's shrinking, and the ultimate cause is the continued beach replenishment in Ocean City to the north. Sand dynamics is a VERY complex science. If we cannot get our politicians to agree on the simple things like evolution and a helio-centric solar system, how on Earth could we expect them to understand something far more sophisticated?

I wish I had an answer to that question...

 

I've read quite a bit about Assateague's history and haven't run across any thoeory connecting OCMD beachfill to Assateagues erosion problems. Is that available?

What I've been able to find indicates the main cause of the erosion problems on the north end of Assateague are the inlet jetties that block the natural flow of sand from north to south in that area. The HUGE amount of sand at the south end of Ocean City (that entire inlet parking lot is built on sand blocked by the north inlet jetty) and the even HUGER amount of sand in the ebb tidal shoals off the inlet is sand that would have been destined for Assateague had the inlet jetties not been built following the 1933 Hurricane. OCMD has only had beach nourishment since 1988. Assateague was experiencing erosion long before then.

I do agree its a complex science...and the part about coastal development.

 

so,where is everyone's beloved, righteous surfrider? counting your money?

 

Even though this article was publish in 2007 it did gain some traction as being cited by a number of follow up articles by Coastal Engineers. Economics of Beach Replenishment as always been one dimensional as we're failing as stakeholders conveying to policy makers the 2nd dimensional view from the surf.

http://www.griffith.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/312253/Lazarow_2007_Dropping-In.pdf

 

I feel your pain, I asked myself the same question over a year ago. So this is my 2 cents, Surfrider as a National organization is really all we have to pursue our interests. The strength of any Chapter is the tireless dedication of those willing to volunteer their time. The task to influence is colossal to say the least to collaborate with Local/State/Congressional Rep's and Army Corp. too. Army Corp decisions are "science" based as we do have in our favor as I've found many recognized and accepted "science" that has been established creating more desirable Beach Replenishment projects while maintaining surf able beach contours and sand bars. The "key"is using their own science to support your campaign while at the same time raising the "Bar" to policy makers of economic benefits.

 

....or they moved away from surfing and into purely environmental activism.....

 

they don't even pump sand here,but the sand pumped up north and down south comes and ruins our breaks.two summers ago there were swells that only broke on the beach.sandy fixed it like it was before pumping ever began,like the good old days.

 

still better than any surf down south.

 

That's true, I surveyed National Surfrider campaigns last year and majority of those were environmental and credited the very few surfing related campaigns might be a result of a more surfing presence in individual Chapters and Regions. So might it be safe to say the Surfing Communinty as abandoned their ranks for not contributing more to surfing issues that was mainstream when the Organization was founded, appears so. This remains a large challenge for National not only monetarily as well as membership retention to re-focus some form a marketing strategies by diligent approach to those issues we're facing now. While the environmental activism that has taken "root" has created an atmosphere of "work with what ya got" so if that's what's left in their ranks then really who's at fault. The bottom line, National and ourselves are contributory to this climate until surfing community wakes up, demands more from National and local Chapter and willing to share the burden of "activism" for Surfing. We're feeling the pain now so in order to make the pain more tolerable we're going have to be more evolved. Those on here who know me, we've have been dealing with our local Chapter with our own surfing issues and now we're seeing some day light @ the end of the tunnel. So maybe if it can happen here maybe you'll see success at your own surf break. Sorry, not trying to preach, just sharing some experiences for others to ponder and maybe some good for all of us can come out of it.

 

Long Branch took way more than 2-3 years to come back. I'd say 8-10.