Surf break

An example of a classic beach break is Hossegor in Southern France, which is famous for waves of up to 6 m (20 ft).

Natural 'wedge' style constructive interference can however occur on any type of surf break, provided the local wave dynamics are favorable.

They form at specific times of the day, month, and year due to tidal currents, and can be accurately predicted.

Well known examples include several in the Amazon Basin, in Brazil, at the Severn Bore in the United Kingdom, and in Sumatra, Indonesia.

The ability to create genuine, long, barreling surfable waves at locations far from natural shorelines might prove to be a game-changer within surfing culture and history.

Wave pools are currently the subject of much research and development, and there are a number of planned and existing commercial operations.

One documented place an earthquake-generated tsunami has been surfed is at Punta Hermosa in Peru, at the offshore Kon Tiki reef, where tsunami-generated waves from the 1974 Lima earthquake were ridden about 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) from the shore, before further rising and crashing into the nearby shoreline.

[5] Surfable seismic-style waves generated from landslides, volcanic eruptions or meteorite impacts into the ocean are all possible, but all of these are very rare, unpredictable, and have not been documented as being surfed.

These form when a large storm or hurricane forces water in front of it, due to the combined action of strong winds over long distances.

Backwash breaking parallel to or obliquely to the angle of the shore is sometimes also called sidewash, which can form from the reflection of a wave breaking against adjacent obstructions such as jetties, groynes, or rockwalls, or simply from the action of backwashing waves which strike a shoreline at an angle.

Sidewash and backwash is relatively common, and may amplify another incoming breaking wave's size due to constructive interference.

When this process happens with an open ocean swell the resulting wave can also be significantly larger due to constructive interference from either deep water refraction or diffraction, or both.

This type of effect is suggested to occur at two of the largest surf breaks in the world, at Nazaré in Portugal, and Jaws in Hawaii.

These have been ridden by people on surf craft caught in a flash flood event, such as on an inflatable tyre, although not usually intentionally.

These form where strong tidal currents enter a river or deltaic system, pushing shorewards and creating a surfable wave, and can extend for many kilometers.

[citation needed] These unintentional 'constructions' may allow sand to build up around the wreck, sometimes forming surfable waves.

The 'Superbank' in Queensland is a world class surf break, partly formed from the influence of nearby sand dredging and dumping.

There may be an optimum amount of sand dredging and build up which allows all three breaks to be generally improved, as was perhaps the case in the early 2000s.

Reactions to local artificial reef construction proposals is mixed and variable, and is usually examined on a case-by-case basis.

This has occurred at the Bruce's Beauties surf break in South Africa, where wave quality was no longer the same once the adjacent dunes were developed with residential style housing.

In the world renowned surf movie: The Endless Summer director Bruce Brown comments on the "perfect breaking wave" - Cape St. Francis in South Africa.

Reformation of beaches, coastlines, and beach-front property alter the sand underneath the waves and degrades surfing conditions.

The combustion of fossil fuels translates to rising sea levels through the melting of Earth's ice caps and thermal expansion.

As Earth evolves with increased carbon emissions into the atmosphere, surf breaks see alterations in size, speed, location, and quality of waves.

[8][10] Though storms are supposed to create larger swells and better surf, waves are actually decreasing in size globally.

Rising sea levels decrease the potency of storms; hurricanes and winds have a smaller impact on surf breaks only when the tides are higher.

The quality of surf is not yet known to the future swells due to variables such as sea level, ocean currents, and location on the earth.

Anthropogenic waste running off into the sewage lines that feed to the ocean, sprouting harmful algae blooms and murky water that limit the amount of sunlight coral reefs can absorb.

With an increase of carbon emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels, the ocean acts as a sink for all of the extra CO2 in the atmosphere.

Carbon dioxide absorbed into the ocean from the atmosphere reduces calcification rates in reef-building and reef-associated organisms by altering seawater chemistry through decreases in pH.