Chapter 7 



THE CHARACTER OF SURF UNDER DIFFERENT CONDITIONS 



The character of the breakers that will develop at any particular 

 place on the coast, at any particular time, for waves of given heights 

 and lengths — or even whether there will be any breakers at all — de- 

 pends on local factors. Among these the general contour of the 

 bottom, the presence or absence of obstructions offshore, the nature of 

 the coast, the stage of the tide, the strengths and directions of currents, 

 and the direction and strength of the wind all play their parts. 



Figure 28. — The heavy surf of November 22, 1944, at Winthrop, Massachusetts, 

 beating against the water front boulevard to which it has done great damage. 

 (Photograph, courtesy of Edward R. Snow.) 



THE HEIGHT OF SURF 



Rough estimates of the heights of breakers are apt to be too high, 

 so impressive a spectacle is a heavy surf. It is also important to 

 distinguish between the heights of the actual wave forms at the in- 

 stant of breaking and the height in the air to which sheets of water 

 may be cast when surf beats against steep ledges, sea walls, cliffs, or 

 breakwaters, for the breakers may spout to almost unbelievable 

 heights in severe storms in situations of these sorts (fig. 28). And 



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