The Coast News (Page 1)

A10 THE COAST NEWS
DEC. 16, 2011
Exposing the little known side of onshore photography
Clark Little was not the
first surf photographer to be
fascinated by waves breaking
in the shore break. I
recall Surfer Magazine photographer
Woody Woodworth
in the mid ‘70s spending
hours shooting 6-inch waves
lapping the shore in Baja,
stoked at the color and the
symmetry of mirco waves.
Local surf photographer
Rob Gilley has also taken
some stunning images of the
shore break. Still, to my
knowledge, nobody has specialized
in photographing
the waves that break on
shore the way Clark Little
does. They rank among the
most interesting surf shots I
have ever seen.
As a surfer, I am like
CHRIS
AHRENS
Sea Notes
most of you. I want to get out
past the shore break as
quickly as possible in order
to ride bigger waves, breaking
in deeper water.
But it is here, right
where the water meets the
sand, that some of the most
beautifully violent fractions
of seconds occur.
Most people don’t want
to loiter long amid that violent
impact with an expensive
camera, but that’s where
Little’s most famous photos
are taken.
So now I’m a few hundred
words short of a thousand
trying to convey the
beauty of a world that needs
to be seen to be believed.
Even then you might think
this isn’t happening on
beaches you’re familiar with,
but on some distant planet.
In Little’s world waves
behave unpredictably, rising
up in defiance before spending
themselves on shore, or
throwing out impossibly far
in what look to be ice caves.
Vivid blues and other colors,
some beyond description,
bend into transparent caverns,
a gem show often lasting
less than a second. Click.
An aquatic version of the
Northern Lights explode in a
North Shore sunset, warped
beyond recognition after
being filtered through a thin
sheet of barreling clear
water.
These technical feats
attest to beauty that few
have ever seen, although it’s
right in front of us.
While these beautiful
shots can rock us gently into
dreamland, much of Little’s
other work attest to the violence
committed on the
beach.
There are massive
chunks of potentially deadly
water throwing out at Sandy
Beach, where a bodyboarder
slides down a 10-foot water
slide onto a bed of hard
sand. Waimea Bay is arrested
in the act of condensing and
pouring super bowl sized
buckets onto the land.
How is it that nobody
died? Empty barrels grind
like cement mixers about to
By Bianca Kaplanek
SOLANA BEACH —
With the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers considering a pilot
plan to install an artificial off
the coast of Fletcher Cove,
the city held an informational
meeting Dec. 7 to discuss the
status and future of the project.
Approximately two
dozen stakeholders, including
city staff, residents, surfers,
environmentalists and engineers,
attended the threehour
discussion led by
Richard Seymour, head of
coastal engineering at
Scripps Institution of
Oceanography at the
University of California San
Diego.
The roundtable workshop
included a brief history
Clark Little’s “Mohawk.” Photo by ClarkLittle.com
explode before disappearing
into nothing. For those not
familiar with Oahu’s powerful
ocean, getting this close
is an invitation to a broken
neck.
Our planet is portrayed
as an aquatic destruction
derby before Clark again
switches gears and lets us
and allowed participants to
share what they thought were
the challenges and benefits of
the reef.
After soliciting proposals
for shoreline protection, the
Army Corps of Engineers
selected Solana Beach and
funding was provided in 2006.
The main goal is to create
a multipurpose reef to
retain sand and stabilize the
shoreline. Secondary objectives
are to provide biological
value and enhance recreational
uses, including surfing.
According to a March
2010 conceptual design
report prepared by Everest
International Consultants
Inc. for the Army Corps and
Solana Beach, the city’s entire
shoreline experiences dam-
easily down into a pool of
shallow water where a
friendly looking sea turtle
glides through a subterranean
Hawaiian garden.
The lesson I took from
Clark Little’s photographs is
that deadly and benign
beauty is all around us if we
take the time to look a little
age by waves during storms
that have caused “significant
recreational beach loss,”
threatening public safety and
the stability of surrounding
public and private structures.
A stabilization structure
such as a multipurpose reef
could retain sediment, reduce
storm damage and beach loss
and maximize the benefits of
ongoing and future beach
nourishment projects, the
report stated.
That report, considered
phase one, modified the
design of a conceptual structure
in Ventura County to
local conditions. It also evaluated
the sand retention ability
of an artificial, submerged
offshore reef and developed
and evaluated alternatives.
Phase two would include
a detailed design and environmental
studies that would
evaluate the shoreline change
and the effects on surf and
other recreational activities,
habitat and potential sea
level rise.
Phases three through
five would include engineering
plans, permitting, construction
and post-construction
monitoring.
In a best-case scenario,
the reef could be installed in
five years, but Bob Hoffman
from the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service called that
estimate “very optimistic”
since funding is currently not
available for phase two and
beyond.
The entire project is estimated
to cost between $3 mil-
deeper.
To look deeper into
Clark Little’s word, visit
clarklittlephotography.com.
You’ll never view the shore
break the same again.
Chris Ahrens is a surfer and author of
four books on surfing. E-mail him at
cahrens@coastnewsgroup.com.
Stakeholders hold talks on offshore reef
lion and $8 million. So far the
city has spent $20,000 and
another $100,000 came from a
federal grant, City Manager
David Ott said.
The city retained
Seymour earlier this year to
review the reports conducted
so far.
Representatives from the
Surfrider Foundation had
issues about building the reef
out of plastic given the current
drive to keep that material
out of the ocean.
There were also concerns
about the cost and possible
environmental hazards if the
structure had to be removed.
“Anything you put in the
ocean you may have to
remove,” one participant said.
“And removal is a very real
possibility with a moving
shoreline so it has to be able
to be removed.”
Other challenges would
be keeping the structure submerged
during low tides and
making it look natural.