Rising sea levels: Where will the new waves be?

Post by **Cpt.Caveman** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 9:18 am

With global warming and rising sea levels, if it doesn't stop, its gotta happen sometime. A time where our waves are no longer the same.

the Bower will be gone and Winki will be as fat as the Bower, DY point will change face all-together and break on the dry ledge that we all shit our pants about, North Curly point will start to break left (?), the pool at South Curly will be fat ledging wave....

Surfing down the corso in Manly? It'll probably be closeouts tho.

Does anyone have an imagination of what waves could go off given some water on the rocks? You never know we might get a superbank of our own somewhere over longreef, I can picture it now. The water levels come right up to the base of the cliff eroding some soil and sand down into the water filling out all the cracks and holes in the reef and creating a poo brown superbank.

Haha, fish and sharks will get stuck in ocean baths when the tide drops giving early morning low tide swimmers big shocks!

Post by **Gunther** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 10:40 am

yeah i got a couple of spots which wouldnt mind a bit more water on em, cept its not gunna happen for a looong time

Post by **Tahn** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 10:53 am

Beacon Hill point and Cromer rip bowl..

Post by **marcus** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 3:33 pm

the twelve appostles, the three sisters, point perpendicular surge up near the lighthouse, airs rock.
pidgeon house bombie, barenjoey bombora.

seriously tho, places like weddingcake island, culburra bombora, spookies at the gong and a few other spots may be more surfable.

Ben1 · Post by **Ben1** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 7:54 pm

For sure... there is bound to be heaps of new places that used to be fat and need just a little more water on them. And you never know what big wave spots could be unearthed.

Post by **_cant_touch_this** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 8:03 pm

We should look out for our future surfing generations by laying foundations (i.e rocks/concrete) in certain places that will be covered by water. So in 1000-odd years, we could have dozens of perfect set-ups!

Or maybe we could be lazy and say screw that...

tubedude · Post by **tubedude** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 9:20 pm

i have often thought abotu this subject, global warming for the east coast isnt so bad either, if it gets colder, we will just have heaps more ski slopes, if it gets warmer we will have new surf breaks, and the concrete idea is sick if we would be around to enjoy it, but we most probly wont be... so screw that

BB · Post by BB » Mon Dec 06, 2004 8:45 am

...sorry to butt in on your fantasies...... Reality Check time

"On average, it is expected that by 2100 sea levels will have risen in most places by around half a metre. Reduced to a raw number like this it doesn't sound like too much. What impact does 50 centimetres have on anything? Maybe you'll just have to build your sandcastles a little higher up the beach.
The reality promises to be a little grimmer. In many places, 50 centimetres would see entire beaches being washed away, together with a significant chunk of the coastline. "

"Each centimetre of sea-level rise will lead to increasing impacts on low-lying coastal land. Modelling predicts the inundation would cause sandy beaches on the Australian coastline to recede by the order of 100 times the vertical sea-level rise. For example, if the sea level rises by a metre, the coastal beaches could retreat by about 100 metres unless some preventative action is taken. " (CSIRO)

So the reality of sea level rise would be a massive reduction in the number of surfable locations because many beaches would disappear completely. Beaches are not moveable. They only form under particular geological conditions. The ones we have today are only about ten thousand years old (I"ll check that later). IOf they go we are unlikely to get anymore.

Oh and there are some slightly more serious consequences

"For people living on low-lying islands such as Tuvalu, Kiribati or the Maldives, where the highest point is only 2-3 metres above current sea levels, an extra 50 centimetres could see significant portions of their islands being washed away by erosion or covered by water. Even if they remain above the sea, many island nations will have their supplies of drinking water reduced because sea water will invade their freshwater aquifers.
While these islands have sizeable populations, they're insignificant compared to the tens of millions of people living in the low-level coastal areas of southern Asia. These include the coastlines of Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Burma. "

Post by **Spoon** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 9:23 am

The whole climatic change is alot more serious than our Government seem to want to acknowledge. It is nice to think of new reef breaks but to get to that stage which will be caused by global warming we may also have a small section of southern victoria and parts of Tasmania which are still fertile enough to produce food to support our population since the rest of the country would have been destroyed by drought. The north Sea would of been fished out causing countries to head for the Southern oceans in search of food. The outcomes are endless and none of it great news. The National Geographic did a feature article on possible outcomes a couple of months ago which was scary or if it suits you, Ralph threw in some scary scenarios in another article. Have a good day.

Post by **barstardos** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 11:32 am

I had given up on the RealSurf Forums because they got boring, repetitive and racist - that and I have been in africa for a while with no surf or web access.
At last this topic is worth a few comments - good one Caveman.
Fisrtly, sea level change is real and its already happening. My advice is do not buy realestate on the collaroy narrabeen strip or manly beachfront or lagoon areas. Sooner or later we are going to get a few big storms coinciding with big tides and these beaches may change forever. Think 1974-style storms plus a higher sea level and pretty soon Marquesas and Flight Deck will form some interesting groynes.
The coast is a very dynamic environment - it moves around a lot and we will soon see what happens when a moving coastline meets valuable coastal real-estate.
The current coastline stabilised around 5600 years ago. Sea-level has risen over 120 meters since its low-stand at the peak of the last ice age only 18,000 years ago. There have been 17 ice ages and interglacial periods in the last 2.4million years and th sea level has been up and down like a yoyo over this period.
Me - I bought my apartment on top of the hill at Queenscliff, well above any potential sea-level havoc!

Post by **Carbon** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 12:43 pm

Tama reef... longer plus that sketchy section right at the tip

Post by **matt...** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 2:22 pm

more houses will be lost in terrigal lagoon....
but on the positive side, it may open the bend to be an awesome rivermouth breaking left AND right !...

a high tide broke over into the lagoon recently...

half a metre might just about do it !....

terrigal rockpool only needs about 30cms more water to make it break left for about 40 metres...

the skillion will get a wave...

avoca lake will open up...

or guys may be washed into the rockpool at avoca point...

Post by **Jessep** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 9:41 pm

its pretty easy for ppl to end up in the rock pool on a high tide ive seen it happen a few times

BB · Post by BB » Tue Dec 07, 2004 12:34 pm

One more interesting prediction from the CSIRO........more south swell.....less north swell...won't that do wonders for the surf in Sydney!

Post by **Rug** » Sat Dec 11, 2004 8:17 am

By 2100 we'll all be dead so who freakin cares. Go surf

Post by **moneyman** » Sat Dec 11, 2004 3:10 pm

BB wrote:One more interesting prediction from the CSIRO........more south swell.....less north swell...won't that do wonders for the surf in Sydney!

So that means Voodoo and S.R will become more crowded. Noice

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Rising sea levels: Where will the new waves be?

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