Surfer's Harbor History: 1970-77

Surface Motion

V arious Dredging Systems
in the Early 70s

Harbor
History
Surf
Skate
Home

1970-76: A temporary floating dredge is aquired by the harbor. It fails to do the job.

1972: The first permanent dredge is installed at a cost of $600,000. It proves to be a failure and is abandoned for a while, then taken out.

April-December 1976: The Army Corps of Engineers designs, tests, and installs an "eductor" jet system of dredging. The eductor system runs for a while then fails.

The Army Corps of Engineers' eductor dredging device consists of jet pumps that gather sand at the channel inside the west jetty and discharge it past the east jetty, thus bypassing the harbor and simulating the natural sand flow. The system is designed to run year round.
In 1976, heavy sand at the intake proves to be too much for the jet pump system. The engineers' calculations underestimated the amount of sand flow by at least half. It breaks down at Christmas time. The eductor was eventually taken down to Oceanside, CA where it functioned well.
1977: The Shellmaker company is brought in to dredge the Harbor and rescue the Army Corps of Engineers.
Commentary: Season after season of excellent 70s Harbor surfing is in part due to the failure of these systems. Their inadequacy assured that shoaling would occur and lay the foundation for well shaped rights, perfect for tube riding.

Surf history related ads by Google.

Back to Harbor timeline

Back to Surface Motion History contents