Marine biology and surf Science

[doclach]

Marine biology has been a great passion of mine (including SCUBA diving for 15 years) for may years and I notice with nearly all our crew who surf regularly there is more than a passing interest in what is in the oceans we surf in. There are some scattered things in the forum on dolphins and sharks and a few other things, so thought I'd start a specific thread - seeing as boogers we are intricately part of the ocean.

A mates webby has just put up a link which poses questions answered by Rob Brander from UNSW (University of NSW) titled "Science of the Surf" so thought I would start with that. This weeks question is "What makes a good surf break?". Rob runs the "Science of the Surf" Educational program which visits a lot of schools.

Anyways is good stuff. If you are interested goto the homepage http://www.frothers.com.au and scroll down and you will see the link.
Looking forward to what you folks put in here.

Doc

[brad]

Cheers Doc, I love reading up on surf science and studying the weather there is always new stuff to learn and as body boarders the more knowledge we have of the weather, sandbars swell period etc the more chance we have at scoring great waves.
There are also allot of good resources on www.coastalwatch.com that show you the basics of swell forecasting and the way the ocean works aswell as environmental issues.

[ralphy]

Im a trained enviro scientist with a major in Geography guys so if ya have any questions ask away, i studied coastal geography units so studied meterology, coastal geomorphology and all that jazz. Has helped a fair bit when dealing with the surf, knowing how to read the charts, how sands moving around etc, so yeh if ya have any questions fire away, ill try answer them.

[JONNO313]

I tell you what I thought was interesting. The article on coastal watch about climate change and how it effects the surfer/bodyboarder and how we can help. All the creatures in the ocean and crustaceans are a fascinating thing. But I have never gone into detail. But the more knowledge you have the better and safer you will be.

[JonoIsMad.com]

Reuben Meerman a fella who came to my school a few years back...he does a section on this show called catalyst on abc..thursday nights i think?

but anyways he speaks all about waves, beached and alike

its pretty good

[Bombie]

Great article Doc-o-matic!

Things like that go unappreciated, until we learn of them, or they aren't there anymore.

Sounds as if this may be an interesting thread in the future!

[doclach]

Cool guys - looks like there will be some interesting things - amazing who is tucked away here - bloody Ralphy - u r a dark horse - what a great line of study. will be asking you some questions fer sure along the way. I grew up with Jacques Cousteau as my 'hero' and the passion for the ocean has always stuck around I spose. Mega

[doclach]

Oh yer, meant to mention, if you are on coastalwatch, have a look at the creds for some of the still pics - the guy who runs the site I gave above is Brad Malyon, coastal watch get lots of his pics. they recently sent Mal to the solomons to promo the area. Lush deal. I was lucky enough to be sent the primo of his photos - awesome stuff - most weren't published and it was superb stuff. The ocean is such a big place - so many places to ride.

Also there is a mega movie around called sharkwater - I am busting to see it, if nyone gets to see it first, please write here and let me know how it is

[JonoIsMad.com]

An article on coastalwatch is also worth a watch......the new artificial wave...

guys if i ever become a billionaire....ill build one,fly everyone here to it and we can all surf it and rate it.....

sorry jonno though i don't think it has a kook setting.....

[JONNO313]

An article on coastalwatch is also worth a watch......the new artificial wave...

guys if i ever become a billionaire....ill build one,fly everyone here to it and we can all surf it and rate it.....

sorry jonno though i don't think it has a kook setting.....

bahahah I hope u can put your money where ur mouth is. imtaking u down shortly to take some pics.

[Cal]

Since arriving on the Goldy 3 years ago i've noticed (more like hit in the face) more and more high rises built up and down the coastline. Surfers is practically a city now and the high rises are heading further south by the day. This then blocks the wind and messes up the sands shifting which help create our lovely beach breaks, is it gonna end up like Miami in the states with crap surf???

Ralpy is end in sight? Is our greed to build and forge land killing the surf?

[JONNO313]

Since arriving on the Goldy 3 years ago i've noticed (more like hit in the face) more and more high rises built up and down the coastline. Surfers is practically a city now and the high rises are heading further south by the day. This then blocks the wind and messes up the sands shifting which help create our lovely beach breaks, is it gonna end up like Miami in the states with crap surf???

Ralpy is end in sight? Is our greed to build and forge land killing the surf?

yep. Think it of this way. thousands of years ago the average life span was 30. now its easily double that. Population=disasters

[JonoIsMad.com]

im going to go rampant with a shotgun if the spit is ever EVER developed...

in the sunday mail yesterday i read money is being raised to bring back kirra it sounded pretty interesting, the site is launched this friday ill get back to y'as on the webby for it..

but yeh the gold coast i beginning to turn to shit because of too many people and too many tourists

i wonder what the coast would have been like 1000 years ago on a 6ft+ offshore day?

[doclach]

Yer JIM - it woulda been grand eh? - wonder is straddie was even there?

Great question from ya Cal - I'll be so interested to see what Ralphy says - I remember the changes I saw when I lived there, it was scary - even the shifts in the waterways through to Jumpinpin were dramatic s the supposedly well worked out 'safe' entrance to SouthPort was developed - first Trawler over it in heavy weather tipped anyways... soo complex that stuff.

all those building cant be good for such a fragile shoreline.... wotcha say Ralphy?

[JONNO313]

[quote="JonoIsMad.com"]

in the sunday mail yesterday i read money is being raised to bring back kirra it sounded pretty interesting, the site is launched this friday ill get back to y'as on the webby for it..quote]

thats been going on for a while now. but u bring a good point. wonder what it wouldve been like