This story originally appeared on The Guardian and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration.
\n\nThe climate crisis is coming for some of the world’s greatest surf breaks, submerging some as sea level rises and wiping out others as classic breaks get crushed against coastal developments.
\n\nAnalysis of dozens of famous waves in World Surfing Reserves (WSR) found that more than three-quarters were at high risk because of changing tide levels, hardened shorelines, and shifting sands.
\n\nThe impacts matter not only to the surfers catching the waves but also to the communities that depend on the multibillion-dollar surf economy, often located in places with little else.
\n\nThe waves rated at most risk in the study include the “bombing barrels” of Croyde Beach in North Devon, UK; the point breaks at Noosa in Australia and Oriente Salvaje, El Salvador; and Santa Cruz reefs of California such as Sewer Peak and Wind and Sea.
\n\nThe best surfing waves are created by intricate combinations of seafloor shape, swell direction, and tide. “Surf breaks are incredibly unique oceanographic phenomena—a confluence of all these factors that fit together just right to make the wave happen—and so those processes are really sensitive,” said Dan Reineman, an…
Original source: https://www.wired.com/