Tomo & The Mighty Bellyslide

Just in case you've not come across this elsewhere, here's Mark Thomson in high speed action. 11 minutes long, but worth the time- kick back with the morning coffee and get stoked. If you get really stoked, don't forget Tomo's mat deal- $195 shipping included. Email us at info @ foamandfunction.com and we'll set you up. Some of that footage was shot by Mick Waters, who's 'Little Black Wheels' is getting a nice honor with a screening at the Cucalorus Independent Film Festival in Wilmington, NC. We have signed DVDs of the film available too, and couldn't be happier for Mick. Now if only there was some swell.....

Yaletown

We're back to False Creek, this time along the north side, where the last two decades have seen an incredible transformation to park space and dense residential development.  The shoreline is severely hardened - most of this edge is old fill that extends out into the historic False Creek estuary - but the seawall also provides another link in Vancouver's wonderful waterfront trail system.  Variations in the height and design of the wall provide access and outlooks and interest.  There have also been numerous attempts to provide some habitat, including intertidal benches, gravel and softer substrate, and even some shoreline vegetation.


AERIAL VIEW

Ambleside

I may have seen this beach from the Lion's Gate Bridge earlier, but the first time it really registered with me was 20 years ago when I heard Wolf Bauer talk about it.  But this week was the first time I've actually walked it - or watched the sun set from it!


The exposure to waves from the west must drive any loose sediment on the West Vancouver shoreline eastward and historically it probably wound up incorporated into the protruding delta of the Capilano River, which emerges into Burrard Inlet just east of the bridge.  Groins (groynes, in Canadian) now organize West Vancouver's sand and gravel into pocket beaches - including the large one at Ambleside Park.  The beach curves out to meet a large groyne, on the end of which stands a Squamish figure welcoming visitors to Vancouver and the Squamish's historic land.




AERIAL VIEW

West Vancouver

There is a public promenade along the shoreline all the way from Dundarave to Ambleside (2-3 kms), most of it heavily armored to protect it from storm waves.  The high tide prevented me from getting much of a sense of the intertidal, but it appears that the orientation, and perhaps severely limited sediment availability, results in little opportunity for real beaches except where projecting structures act as groins.


The West Vancouver Shoreline Preservation Society has been experimenting with using strategically placed rock to act as reefs to enhance habitat and to help trap sediment in the intertidal.  They have also been working to improve stream mouths and stormwater outfalls along this heavily urbanized shoreline.  I'll have to come back at a low tide sometime and take a closer look.


AERIAL VIEW

Dundarave

I was originally just going to do a single "West Vancouver" post, but I couldn't decide what to leave out, so I've split it into three.


It was a quick late afternoon bus trip across the Lion's Gate Bridge to West Vancouver.  I got off at 25th Avenue in the Dundarave neighborhood and walked down to the beach.  The beach here is limited to a beautiful little fillet on the west side of the pier (a groin/jetty, actually), swash aligned with the significant fetch from the west across the Strait of Georgia.


There was a small, lower beach against a stepped seawall in the lee of the pier, but it was mainly under the relatively high tide.


West Vancouver Shoreline Preservation Society


AERIAL
(I'm adding this because sometimes the location feature below links to a view that is zoomed much too far out)

Creekside

The last time I visited this site was on a dreary August morning two summers ago.  Today's October sunshine was a great improvement.


This is the Olympic Village site at the southeast corner of False Creek, Vancouver's urban ex-estuary.  The mud flats, fringing salt marsh, and small streams have all given way to a heavily developed, and redeveloped, landscape with a steep, hardened edge. There is a longer discussion of this site in the earlier post: 


False Creek:  August 2010


Several of us got a great tour of the area on the eve of the Salish Sea Conference.  The upland development is a world class green development with sophisticated water re-use, energy efficiencies, stormwater systems, and careful choices of buildings materials.  The shoreline is a little less green than the buildings, but there are still many ecological enhancements, including the habitat island and the stream/wetland in the park that manages stormwater.

And of course, like so much of Vancouver's shoreline, the edge is a very public and a very accessible one.

Nellita Creek

I last visited this site in January 2010, only a few months after the seawall and the fill were removed and the stream mouth estuary was re-excavated.  Now the site has had enough time for the vegetation to really begin to take hold.  The stream has deposited a significant volume of sediment in the upper portion of the lagoon and this area is now high enough for alder to establish.  The lower portions of the estuary are giving rise to various salt marsh plants.  The mouth of the estuary is probably still trying to figure out how to balance the stream and the daily ebbing and flooding of the tides.  On the other hand, I guess the mouths of estuaries are always trying to sort this out.




The spit itself is a pretty uneven feature.  The beachface is marked by two distinct humps, perhaps an artifact of the original shoreline shape or perhaps the coarse-grained fans of earlier stream mouths.  The restored spit has a low point in the berm that has been overtopped.  Eventually, I expect the spit will even out a little bit, but there's not a lot of beach sediment and not a lot of wave action to move it around, so this process will be slow.

3 Fins & Panel V

Here's one Andrew Kidman made for his kiwi mate Brett, who has a few decent waves in his neighbourhood. Simon Anderson template as a starting point, local footie club colours, Kidman illustration of your break on the deck- can't go much wrong with that.

Proposed Management Options for Ocean Beach

Proposed Management Options for Ocean Beach

Closes: 25/11/2011

In 2008, the Council appointed a Project Team to gather data and consider management options for Ocean Beach. This followed significant erosion on the beach in June/July 2007, the DCC’s replenishment of sand on the beach and other remedial works as part of a now established ‘holding pattern’, and a comprehensive consultation process. Since then the Project Team has gathered and analysed that data and completed a risk assessment process. It has now identified proposed management options for Ocean Beach, taking into account the existing processes and risks.

A report from Tonkin & Taylor dated October 2011 entitled: ‘Ocean Beach, Coastal Issues and Options’, sets out preferred options for managing the area using an adaptive management approach. The report is available for inspection at the DCC’s Customer Services Centre and Libraries from Tuesday 25 October during their ordinary opening hours. A summary of intent and submission forms are also available. The information, plus background material on erosion at Ocean Beach, can be found at www.dunedin.govt.nz/consultation.

Submissions must be received by 5.00 pm on Friday 25 November. Hearing dates have been scheduled for Tuesday 31 January to Thursday 2 February 2012. Please state in your submission whether or not you wish to be heard.

Consultation documents

• Public Notice (PDF, 21.5 KB, new window)This document is a pdf copy of the Public Notice for Proposed Management Option for Ocean Beach consultation.
• Tonkin and Taylor Report (PDF, 3.8 MB, new window)This report summarises the existing and potential future situation. It also describes a range of potential generic options to address the shoreline erosion.
• Statement of Intent (PDF, 1.7 MB, new window)The Statement of Intent outlines management options for Ocean Beach and summarises the Tonkin and Taylor report.
• Impact of Scenarios on Ocean Beach Domain (PDF, 463.6 KB, new window)this map shows the impact of Scenarios on Ocean Beach Domain.
• Managed retreat sandy backdune (PDF, 1.2 MB, new window)This illustration shows the managed retreat with sandy backdune.
• Reshaped dune marram foredune (PDF, 1.2 MB, new window)This illustration shows the reshaped dune with marram foredune.
• Slideshow Stakeholders Meeting (PDF, 4.6 MB, new window)This is a pdf of the slideshow presentation to the stakeholders meeting.
• Submission Form (PDF, 23.3 KB, new window)This document can be used to make a submission regarding the Proposed Management Options for Ocean Beach.

Consultation details

Closing date	25/11/2011
Contact person	Business Development Team Leader
Public feedback	Online submission form (new window) Email to - oceanbeach.comment@dcc.govt.nz Post to - Proposed Management Options for Ocean Beach, Community and Recreation Services, Dunedin City Council, PO Box 5045 Moray Place, Dunedin 9058, Attention: Lisa Labuchagne Hand deliver to - Proposed Management Options for Ocean Beach, Customer Service Centre, Ground Floor Civic Centre, 50 The Octagon - Attention Lisa Labuchagne
Public meetings	The public meeting is to be held on Monday 7 November 2011 at 7.00 pm. The venue is the Port Otago Room, first floor, Edgar Centre, corner Portsmouth Drive and Teviot Street. All interested members of the public are cordially invited to attend. A summary of the options and submission forms will also be available at the meeting .

A Few More From Sacred Craft

Business end of a butterknife. You'll be seeing more of this soon I promise.


surfboards

Daniel Thomson in the Shaping Bay


...and one not from Sacred Craft. My current all purpose quiver.

My computer seems to be back online and working famously. Emails will be replied too, things will be caught up. A few more from the surfboard show- between never having time to wander off and shoot photos and losing most of the meager few I did take when the hard drive died, I'm stoked to have these. Honestly wasn't that impressed by a lot of what I saw, it seemed to be fancy glass jobs more than anything else really. There was some good stuff though (Henry Hester's 80's asym in the Rusty booth was one of the best I thought, but I lost that photo sorry) and there was a nice range of shapes represented, so it definitely seemed to be a something for everyone situation. It's easy to be cynical about the Sacred Craft, but it serves a nice purpose and seems to stoke plenty of people out. I get to hang out with Jon Wegener and Mark Thomson in the same building, so you know I'm having a good time.

Battered beach-access ramp may be moved

Damage to the St Clair access ramp, which occurred following heavy seas earlier this month. Photo by Stephen Jaquiery.

 Major changes may be in store for a ramp and staircase at Dunedin's St Clair Beach, facilities which have had repeated failures in the face of heavy seas.

Dunedin community life general manager Graeme Hall said the ramp might be shifted further down the Esplanade towards Middle Beach, once councillors had made a decision on its future.

And with extensive research on the troublesome coastline recently, any decision made should be based on better information.

Mr Hall is writing a report on the future of the ramp and staircase, after the ramp failed earlier this month - the third time since the sea wall was built in 2004.

Council staff acted to keep the public safe by closing access. It has remained closed.

The damage followed rough seas that scoured sand from Tomahawk Beach and forced the council to shore up dunes at Middle Beach and disconnect electricity to lights at Kettle Park after sand hills were cut to within metres of the sportsground's light poles.

At St Clair, the ramp's concrete cracked, and steel reinforcing rods were exposed.

Asked about the likely contents of his report, Mr Hall said while sea walls at St Clair had historically had problems, the new wall itself had handled all the sea had thrown at it since it was established in 2004.

The ramp and the nearby staircase, however, had been a problem, he said.

Mr Hall said he had been writing a report on the history of the issue, dealing with engineering, insurance and guarantees, when the latest damage occurred.

After the recent damage the council would attempt to discover who was responsible for the constructions unable to stand the force of the sea.

Design consultant Duffill Watts and King and construction company Naylor Love agreed to strengthen and repair the ramp and staircase at no cost to the council when the facilities were replaced in 2007.

Mr Hall said it had been known since that time that the position and construction of the ramp was "not ideal" for the sea conditions in the area.

At the same time as the ramp and stair issues, the council had been dealing with erosion as a separate matter, and it was sensible to wait until reports, like the recently released Tonkin and Taylor report on coastal erosion, before making decisions.

"Whatever solutions come up, we will have a greater understanding of the beach than we have had previously," Mr Hall said.

Asked if the council had to provide the ramp for disability access, he said the council had the opportunity in the past to get a government exemption from having disability access at the beach, but had not followed that route.

The report will go before the next community development committee meeting on November 30.

david.loughrey@odt.co.nz

Bellyyyyyyyyyyy!

Who knew that roughly 4' x 1' of very beautifully bookmatched Zebrano wood ply would be mad surf fun? In a early 20th century style no less? A couple of posts back I raved about the new daily driver quiver, and here's half of it explained. The lovely Mr. John Isaacs Esq. of Cornwall set this up and I'm deeply thankful to him. A couple of emails to Sally of the Original Surfboard Company and much to my surprise a box of board arrived. Built by a UK boatbuilder and a continuation of a fine English tradition, the board is a total screamer in the water. It took a couple of waves to dial in some technique and then it was away- waist high closeouts become madly exciting and a waist high peeler is a total playground. The ladies do love it too, as John's photos above show and from the utter joy on the faces of the faces of the two cute young things who borrowed it for a few waves last weekend, the boards a winner. Many thanks to those responsible, and expect a few more prone posts as this thing gets a West Coast tour.

Sequalitchew Delta

Despite its significance in shaping the modern Puget Sound landscape, the Vashon glaciation was remarkably brief (geologically) with the ice advancing and retreating across the southern Lowland in a thousand years, perhaps much less.  Saturday's field trip looked at a fascinating legacy of the rapid recession. 


As the ice melted northwards towards Tacoma, it may have trapped meltwater in a large lake beneath the ice in what is now the Puyallup Valley. When the pressure got high enough, the water burst out through spillways on the western edge of the valley and poured across Lakewood and Steilacoom, eroding and redepositing enormous volumes of gravel in a complex pattern of broad channels and terraces. LIDAR images capture a remarkable fluvial landscape stretching across the Lakewood and Steilacoom area, one not fully appreciated when stuck in Fort Lewis traffic on I-5.


The outburst floods (Jokulhaups), of which there were many, reached Lake Russell (the glacial lake that occupied South Puget Sound at that time) at Dupont and later near the mouth of Chambers Creek, where they formed large, steep, coarse-grained deltas.  The tops of the deltas are 160-200 feet above the modern shoreline, corresponding to the level of Lake Russell.


Much of 20th-Century Seattle and Tacoma were built from sand and gravel mined from the Chambers Creek delta, but that pit ran out of room to grow and has been replaced by a park and a golf course (Pioneer: October 2010).  Since then, the region has built its foundations and its roads and its bridges with aggregate from this paleo-delta in Dupont (aerial image), which lies just north of Sequalitchew Creek.


Present three dozen geologists with a 160' cliff of gravel foreset beds and they all get pretty excited.  The afternoon sun was warming the gravel face and we were entertained by a near constant rain of pebbles.  It was probably a good thing we weren't allowed to actually inspect the face carefully - we might have lost someone under a large pile of clean gravel.  On the other hand, it would have been interesting to look more closely for clues as to how quickly this delta originally formed.


It was great that the folks from CalPortland were willing to show us around.  Credit for the day goes to Kathy and Darrell and Matthew, who've put together a great story and led a great trip.

Important News From The House Of Gonad

When you get an email with a subject line like that post title, you know it's going to be good and indeed it was. Man of the people, Mark Sutherland, has made access to the mighty Gonad Man strips absolutely free! Yes, at his site www.gonadman.com the complete adventures of the testicular hero, both old and new, are now available for your perusal. Laugh, wonder and be vaguely offended as Gonad Man takes on the sacred cows of surf culture with all sorts of nudity, foul language and giant dolphin turds. You can then shop some fine 'nad merchandise like the above T-shirt design and bring the wonder to your family, friends and workmates. Onya Sutho, you're a beaut.

Monument Park

If the Puget Sound shoreline has a start and an end, this would be Mile 0, at least for those of us who think from left to right (and who consider PS to include entire U.S. portion of the Salish Sea).  It is also Mile 0 of the 49th parallel, at least the part of it that forms the boundary between the U.S. and Canada.  It's a straight shot from here east to the Lake of the Woods (Minnesota/Manitoba).


The big trees on the bluff (which are nicely displayed on the trail down to the beach) suggest this bluff isn't eroding terribly fast. The beach to the south had a fairly wide berm (consistent with the slow bluff erosion).


I've noted before that this beach is one where it is possible the net drift direction has changed due to the construction of the ferry terminal and causeway on Roberts Bank, which forms a pretty effective breakwater for storm waves coming down the Strait of Georgia, although it's not clear to me what effect that would have on a straight stretch of beach like this.


I visited this same beach from the north several years ago (49th Parallel:  August 2007).  In both cases, I didn't wander too far across the line.