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New Smyrna Surfers Want the Perfect Wave to Keep Rolling in June 25, 2010 -- Surfing advocates in New Smyrna beach say their sport generates about 6 million dollars a year. Surfers flock to the flat wide beach because of one of the most perfect waves in Florida. But New Smyrna residents are worried that sweet surf could be disrupted by a plan to extend a jetty at the beach as 90.7s Mark Simpson reports: Randy Richenberg is a surf shop owner and former New Smyrna Beach City Councilman. He looks like the perfect surfer, weathered by waves wind and sun. Nowadays he wears shorts, a t-shirt, and dark sunglasses, more than suit. Which is just fine as we stand on New Smyrna Beach next to the Ponce Inlet analyzing the waves. Richenberg says "Statewide you would be lucky to find a rideable wave anywhere else in the state of Florida today. But here at the inlet you can see that they’re able to conduct a surfclass and actively surfing out here, and there is a knee to chest high wave breaking out here today." But surfers in New Smyrna are worried that an Army Corps of engineers plan to extend the southern jetty at the Ponce inlet by 1000 feet, could mess up their perfect wave. Ironically it’s the same jetty that was built in the early 1970s that actually created New Smyrna’s great surf conditions. Richenberg is one of the many surfers who remember what the Ponce Inlet area was like to ride before the North and South jetties were put in, he says "They have had an influence to make the surf break even better here in new Smyrna, because I actually surfed the inlet before there were any jetties here and it was just predominantly shoals on either side of the inlet and not any rideable surf." The jetties stopped the entrance of the Ponce Inlet channel from shifting because of tides and storms. But their creation changed the wave and current patterns on the beach. They built up sandbars closer to shore, and those improved the quality of the waves hitting the beach…. And 40 years later New Smyrna is known for having the most consistently rideable wave in Florida. But the Jetty has also changed the way sand accumulates in the Ponce Inlet navigation channel. The Army Corps says tides, currents, and waves build up sand on one side of the waterway pushing everybody to the other side. Army Corps project manager Shelly Trulock says that makes it dangerous for the pleasure boats, charter fishermen, and the Coast Guard patrols that travel the Ponce Inlet channel, " It’s just not a safe navigable channel right now and by building the south jetty that will allow the channel to migrate to a more central location and improve the overall safety and navigability of the channel." The Army Corps spends about 2 million dollars every four years on dredging to keep boat traffic moving safely, and the Corps hopes the Jetty extension project will solve the problem. Volusia County elected officials and the army corps say they listened to surfers' concerns and actually changed the design of the jetty project to reduce any negative effects the extension might have. The Army Corps says one engineer working on the project is a surfer himself. But many local wave riders are still skeptical. They’re worried the jetty extension will reduce the strength of incoming swells. At a recent meeting on the jetty project local Congresswoman Suzanne Kosmas acknowledged there are still a lot of unknowns about how the waves will be impacted ... and she says she understands surfers' concerns, "I think it’s interesting that they admit that the surfing conditions were thoroughly improved by the last section of jetty that was built there, and that everyone admits we don’t know if it will have a good effect or a negative effect or any effect on surfing conditions." Kosmas wants to hold public hearings on the Jetty extension before the fall. The timeline for the project is still unclear. Back at the beach surf instructor Jimmy Lane has just come out of the water from teaching his morning class. He says his most advanced students like to ride the waves closest to the south jetty and he’s worried about the plan to extend it. If it'll help them understand, Lane says he’ll get all the army corps engineers and Representative Kosmas riding a wave if they’ll come down for a lesson. When Lane speaks about surfing his enthusiam shines through " Suzanne! I don’t know how old she is, but my oldest lady is 63 years old and I’ve had her out surfing and she looked at me and all her friends from California who are age were clapping and they go this is the coolest sport around" New Smyrna’s surfers just want to keep it that way.
Ponce Inlet...notice shallow sandbars in both images
That small spit of land jutting out to the top is South Jetty
Surfer Randy Richenberg
Surf Instructor Jimmy Lane |
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