Some time ago, indeed – the first ever Surf Science article as it turns out – Trident wrote about sand. Said article was entitled “The Symphony of Sand”, back when Trident made a point of being poetic and/or creative and/or humorous with article titles. Now we mostly have more simple, often one-word titles like Megalodon (Ed’s note: to be fair, that title pretty much speaks for itself.)
Anyway, this article has barely begun and we’re already off topic here. The bottom line is, the topic of sand is not a new one. Not even for Trident. Nor is sand new. No, sand is old. Not always, but sand can be super old. Sand can be composed of stuff like quartz, silica and even from volcanic and fossil sources – so in essence, sand can be millions, or even billions of years old. So ja, super old. Also, sand gets everywhere. Your wetsuit, your eyes, your mouth, bottom – sand gets everywhere.
Sand is essential to a healthy coastal environment as we all know…
Yet every day we see sandy beaches peppered with plastic garbage. Stop it already humanity!
But today, Trident is focussing on something even more insidious than the pollution of our sand. As it’s our headline, today Trident focuses on the erosion of sand. Which to us self centred surfers means what environmental impact sand, as well as the lack of it, has on the health of our surf spots.
Many folks argue for climate change and its impact on sand erosion. Well, we’re not delving into climate change’s influence on sand because we are looking at an even more direct and obvious human impact. Indeed, the mere fact of any human impact on any environment can – and probably should – be considered part of climate change, but that’s a philosophical debate for another time.
Nonetheless, human involvement in sand issues can be broadly defined into several areas. Namely, the removal of sand – the transfer of sand from one place to another, as well as the blockage of natural sand movement. There are several others, but let’s stick to these few for the point of this article.
For instance, did you know that literal billions of tons of beach sand are used for concrete in the construction industry worldwide? “Yes Trident,” we hear you say. “But why beach sand – when we have huge deserts filled with sand, heat and pretty much bugger all else?”
Sand is land.
So here’s the thing. Apparently most desert sand is pretty useless for concrete mixing. We don’t really know, we’re not scientists. Officially. Anyway, the irony of this is not lost on Trident. Beach sand is being eroded at least partly because of human interference. Say, with constructing the McMansions along certain pretty coastal towns. Yet, some of the sand being used for the construction of multimillion Rand houses could have been used to prevent sand erosion. Which in turn eventually causes said McMansions to collapse into the sea somewhere in the future like students gracelessly exiting a pub.
A vicious circle. Sand being used to build buildings which will fall onto the sea because the sand was removed. Sometimes for building. Trident makes connections where few others dare to see them.
But what we do know is this – move sand and/or prevent its natural movement along the coast – and you’ll have problems sooner than later. Just ask the residents of one small town known as St Francis. Which may soon be partly underwater.
But who cares about any of that? We just want our waves to be good.
More on this to come.
