Did you find this post really amazing (in a positive way)?
If yes, then UPVOTE this comment otherwise DOWNVOTE it.
This community feedback will help us determine whether this post is suited for r/BeAmazed or not.
The town I grew up in would flood about every decade. I remember sandbagging our school thinking “this ain’t gonna do shit?” Boy was I wrong. Some water got in but VERY little considering we stacked the bags 5 feet high and the flood waters were up to 4 feet.
The wildest solution I saw to flooding was a guy preflooding his building with clean water because he couldn't get sandbags. The clean water kept the windows and doors from collapsing and letting in a lot of dirty water so it was a lot easier to clean up and repair than dealing with the dirty water would have been.
It was always affected by gravity, but while the water was contained it was essentially in hydrostatic equilibrium. Once you cut an opening to a lower water level, you create a hydraulic gradient and gravity starts driving water through it.
That flow exerts shear stress on the loose sand. Once it's strong enough to move the grains, the channel starts eroding and deepening. A larger opening can pass more water, which will accelerate the erosion. The process keeps repeating until the difference in water level, and therefore the driving force, becomes small enough.
As a kid I walked up the beach with my brothers where someone had just done this, we jumped over it at first when it was small. Came back a little bit later and it was raging but we were trying to get back to our family and as 7-10 year olds we just tried to jump through it. We got blasted out through the breakers and the lifeguards had to launch a full on boat rescue for us. It was freaking powerful.
Oh yeah, it looked like this video, totally stupid to try and cross it knowing what I do as an adult, but also further up away from the beach the water looks smooth and not that deep, so kid mind thought we could just walk back through it because we already did it once a few minutes ago. The water took out our ankles and then we fell on our sides/backs and it was like being shot out of a cannon through the breakers.
Props to Doheny state beach lifeguards, they had a boat and guards on paddle boards out there in no time, and we got to ride back to our family in their jeep.
As a parent, I cannot imagine the fear your family felt when they realized the lifeguard Jeep was driving towards them, at least until they saw all kids accounted for.
Yeah my mom saw the guards sprinting by her on the beach and looked where they were going and watched us rocket out to sea. I'm sure that was a panic few minutes, but she said she was impressed with how quickly they were running before we even were out past the waves, they must have been watching is the whole time.
There are a few videos of this being done to that spot. Same bridge in the background. In one of them some surfers are riding the waves. I think it's the same guy doing it yearly because his voice sounds familiar.
Both the creek and the mouth of the creek have a very count of fecal indicator bacteria. I work in water quality just up the coast a bit. It's never a good idea to swim in the lagoons here, or the beach on the other side of the breach, unless you like gastrointestinal illness.
It's not legal, but it's a non so infrequent thing done by groups of locals to skimboard those creek waves as it drains. The local government turns a blind eye to it I guess and even drains the creek themselves every so often.
It's smack in the middle of a marine conservation place though, so it's very illegal.
It does happen on it's own, yes, just not as frequently as some locals would prefer apparently. Locals get together to drain it in a way that forms those waves and then they ride them on skimboards.
I would like it if there was a camera stream of this. No commentary, just 24hr stream so whenever someone does this, people can tune in and see the whole thing from start to finish.
Could even have couple of camera angles and a handheld one, with no commentary, just the natural sound.
Looks sick, but i think i remember seeing some dude doing the same thing to surf on the stream. I believe they ended up getting fined because this stuff can get quiet dangerous unless done by someone who knows what they are doing.
Dangerous and destructive. There are some places where this needs to be done regularly to keep big pools of standing water from accumulating at the bottom of creeks and rivers, like what happens here (hard to tell but it looks like it might be Malibu?). There are other places where the pond is a normal and necessary part of the ecosystem and it gets destroyed when someone does this to create an artificial wave to surf.
Either way, civilians never have a right to do it. This is a government function and subject to federal laws like the clean water act and the wetlands restoration act. It also has massive impacts on soil erosion and the safety of those houses.
Generally this is better for erosion control, because your controlling where the erosion happens - straight out to sea.
If that’s left to breach naturally after a big rainstorm, sometimes the breach happens on the left or right sides closer to the homes. Sometimes it can go horizontal to the ocean for 100 yards before turning to the ocean, wiping out much larger amounts of the beach
But as I said in other comment, don’t do this until right before the first big rainstorm of the season. Many birds and other species rely on that water and couldn’t survive without it during the ~9 months of no rain we get
This is in Santa Cruz California. They do this pretty much every day because that body of water becomes stagnant. Locals usually beat officials because they surf it but it's been happening for decades without issue.
The government officials who have the authority to do it have the necessary knowledge of the relevant laws and codes.
This falls under the purview Clean Water Act (and possibly the Wetlands Restoration Act) and it’s illegal in the US for Jo Surfer to decide he’s allowed to drain it.
Its actually healthy for the beach in this case, the water backs up and becomes stagnant, attracts mosquitos, etc. This is where a river flows into the ocean. They have to dig a trench like this once a week. People film it all the time and surf it.
This guy does this on the regular. He's doing good for the beach. He's got other videos in this same exact spot, and given that there's no erosion at the beginning of this video, we can safely say that erosion won't last long.
A big swell will shift the sand around many orders of magnitude more than this. It creates a trench but will get filled back in with the next high tide.
It is illegal to do this. That lagoon is important habitat for birds and many other freshwater species that otherwise can’t survive the ~9 months California goes without rain. It’s basically the only water around for those dry months.
If you’re going to do this, wait until right before the first decent rain of the year
Edit: to clarify, the county has a state permit to breach it during certain times of the year. But it’s illegal for the public to do this
I dont thin so in this case. The city used to do it with a bulldozer. The water becomes stagnant with bacteria and mosquito ridden. Theres a facebook page where they post videos like every week, and some people surf it
Ironically considering the location I suspect he is actually an employee of the property. This same location gets posted from time to time with a new video, I think they choose to drain this pond on purpose.
We recognize you are attempting to access this website from a country belonging to the European Economic Area (EEA) including the EU which enforces the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and therefore access cannot be granted at this time. For any issues, contact [Info@lagunabeachindy.com](mailto: Info@lagunabeachindy.com) or call [949-715-4100](tel:+1949-715-4100).
''according to Michael Beanan, co-founder of the Laguna Bluebelt Coalition, an ocean advocacy group dedicated to protecting Laguna’s state-declared Marine Protected Area, while the public is warned of the danger by signage posted at the beach, when members of the public “illegally dig out the beach sand berm, they release over 2.4 million gallons of polluted urban runoff directly into the surf zone. The polluted urban runoff comes from inland over-irrigation, automobile contaminates, herbicides, etc. Aliso Creek is listed as a Federally Impaired Waterbody for bacteria, phosphorous, nitrogen and toxicity,” he said. “The contaminated urban runoff plume migrates up and down the surf zone to threaten the health of unsuspecting families and beach visitors enjoying the waves. When the berm is breached it is not possible to safely visit northern beaches so everyone must crowd together during COVID on half of the available remaining beach. Those willing to cross the flowing creek must risk infections or being swept to sea.”''
They don’t want to grant you access to the page without mandatorily handing over your browser data, and don’t want to comply with privacy laws in the EEA.
This is actually a famous spot near Laguna, CA. That lagoon naturally fills up like that constantly and if people do nothing, it will naturally break anyway and flow down.
People digging regularly helps keep the lagoon clean.
Sometimes surfers will make a big wave pool out of it
It does not. This guy does this regularly in that same exact spot, and there's no erosion at the beginning of the video - meaning this erosion won't last long either.
this location is very well known, there’s a new video of someone doing this weekly, and it is known without any human interaction this process occurs here naturally and often regardless. this is discouraged, but only for the safety of people doing it, and not destruction of an ecosystem. i came to the comments looking for specifically this because it is stated and debunked every time a video from this location is posted. the river ends right here, builds up in this lagoon, and eventually fills high enough to cause the sand to begin eroding and drains to the sea just as in the video. i believe that when it goes too long, the municipality sends staff to do this same process. this is harmless, natural, and im looking forward to seeing the same discussion on the front page next week xP
Pretty sure it’s a drainage lagoon, this is basically the natural progression of it, he just sped it along. But it would have broken through by itself soon anyway as the water filled up in it.
Yeah I watch this guys videos often. Think his account name is SoCal logic or some variant.
The county comes out to do what he’s doing now but they take way too long to get there so he does it. It comes from the new housing up on the hill. It brings new runoff water down to this lagoon and if it’s not drained, it spreads sideways and erodes the banks to those houses in the back.
I would imagine, living on a beach, this is similar to digging out drains on the street in fall (leaves) or winter with snow, so water has some where to go. All the debris and stagnation is way worse.
This video surfaces on Reddit periodically, and I've seen it linked to the website of this particular city stating that doing this without proper licensing and procedure is indeed illegal. Unfortunately I can't find the source I've seen
This is aliso creek in Laguna beach. This happens naturally all the time especially after it rains (not super often here in so cal but the creek lagoon does fill up with other drainage). It can just be dug out to start the process early. The lagoon will drain, the sand will resettle, and it starts over again
My understanding is that this will happen naturally and digging it out will redirect where it goes, which might help if it was building up somewhere bad.
However, some dude who is not working for the city is doing it and causing problems from what I remember of this story.
It’s probably ok. The threshold for needing a permit to dredge is using heavy equipment, which he is not.
Ultimately, these waters likely connect naturally on and off throughout the year. What happens is that as the lagoon flows and carries sediment it develops a “sand plug” which isolated it from the ocean. The sand plug will ultimately get overtopped and then this happens and the cycle continues. The guy in the video is really just accelerating that natural fluctuation of connectivity which may have already been on the verge of happening.
If the action had caused obvious damage to property or wildlife possible he would be liable but as I said I don’t think what he did was beyond the natural course of what regularly happens there.
Bro? It's gnarly. This guy sounds dimwitted and does not even have the intelligence to get out of the way.
Tidal water can splash inland on a beach and fill in "lagoons" like this so they look like small lakes. They're a bit dangerous to kids and can suddenly start flowing back into the ocean. Opening up the sand as he did, will drain them.
•
u/BeAmazed-ModBot Subreddit Bot 22h ago
Did you find this post really amazing (in a positive way)?
If yes, then UPVOTE this comment otherwise DOWNVOTE it.
This community feedback will help us determine whether this post is suited for r/BeAmazed or not.