Visually, Sandspit is one of the most fascinating waves in the world. As if some of California’s thickest and deepest barrels on its best day aren’t enough to make a person stop and watch, the complete chaos caused by its infamous backwash is arguably even more entertaining.
But there are a lot of interesting mechanics at work underneath the surface and behind every single one of those waves. It all breaks in dangerously shallow water. It’s incomparably fast when it’s really cranking, meaning there is no time, space, or consideration for anything other than getting shacked (and not blown up somewhere in the process). The takeoff zone is absurdly small. Oh, and the crowds are unforgiving and packed on a good day with dozens of bodies all scrambling right next to a breakwall.
So, how’d it all come together?
The breakwater built at the end of the Santa Barabra Harbor in the 1920s forced the buildup of sand, interrupted by the natural north to south flow around the point where the wave now sits. After years and years of this manmade interference, that buildup eventually spread to the entrance of the Santa Barbara Harbor and boom, the wave we now know as Sandspit was born.
Of course, the U.S. Army Corps didn’t know they were engineering a mutant wave at the time. They did know a breakwater would disrupt the natural flow of sediment on the coastline but it’s hard to imagine they envisioned this kind of transformation when it was all said and done.
As filmmaker Grant Hilling says here, “Fate sure does love irony.”
