In 2012 I wrote a piece here on this website called First Glance. It documented my introduction to large waves and surfing in general and talked about how the government was transporting sand from the north end to the south end of Ocean Beach in a valiant attempt to ward off the ocean’s constant pounding of the coastline.
Anyone who has surfed that place in the winter knows that the ocean always wins in the end. If the ocean wants to eat a parking lot for breakfast, there is nothing you can do about it. A big December swell and a 6.2-foot high tide and half that sand will end up back were it came from.
From First Glance
Below is what the second parking lot at Ocean Beach in San Francisco looked like in 2008.
While I had not ventured out to Ocean Beach in a few weeks, I was passing by when I noticed that the second parking lot at Sloat Ave along the Great Highway was closed. It had disappeared. The ocean had taken a large bite out of it for breakfast, probably during one of the big winter swells we have had this year. All the sand that they had hauled from the north end to the south had disappeared. In about five years there will be no Great Highway here. Pretty soon the San Francisco Zoo will be underwater.
In the end, the ocean always wins.
Below is what the second parking lot at Ocean Beach in San Francisco looked like in March of 2016.
I find it a bit strange that the fact that the Ocean ate the parking lot of a major metropolitan city did not make it into the local main stream press.