As Waves Pound Pacifica, Surfers Pitch a Reef to Defend the Shore

He said the strongest breakers that crash into Pacifica’s aging seawall can feel like an earthquake or sound like “somebody shooting off a cannon.”

Battalio and his ocean-loving buds have come up with a potential solution that would work with nature and calm the pummeling waves.

Their proposal: build an artificial reef on the ocean floor that could slow the waves, which contribute to the estimated 2 feet of annual coastal erosion, collect sand as any natural reef would, create habitat for fish and restore the nonexistent beach.

They also have a not-so-hidden agenda of potentially shaping a perfectly peeling surfing wave in an area that Battalio said is too dangerous to catch waves in today.

“The waves would break in a way that you could paddle into them, ride along in front of them and get a nice ride,” Battalio said.

Pacifica leaders and San Mateo County officials are on board with the idea and have applied for state funding to flesh out the concept with possible help from researchers at UC Santa Cruz and Stanford University. They hope that a successful pilot could serve as a model for other vulnerable coastal communities.

But coastal experts are not as bullish on the idea. They agree that the solution could, in principle, slow waves and widen the beach, but caution the city to take a whole-shoreline approach rather than piecemeal projects.

The wave riders named the somewhat nature-based adaptation project “Rob’s Reef” in honor of their friend Rob Caughlan, the founding president of the Surfrider Foundation, who passed away in January.

“He was our big driver, and he asked the really good questions that would then spin us up in terms of exchanging ideas,” said George Domurat, a long-time Pacifica resident, surfer and commissioner with the San Mateo County Harbor District.

Until recently, the group would plan over coffee at the Chit Chat Cafe, located on the Pacifica Municipal Pier. But the pier’s cracking led to the cafe’s forced demolition.

The thrashing waves stole the group of dreamers’ gathering space while showcasing the very problem that their spitball sessions sought to solve.

“In a way, it’s ironic, but it’s more ironic that people are surprised that things are failing,” Battalio said. “It wasn’t unexpected; that’s why we came together to come up with a solution, because time is not on our side.”

‘Building walls is not working’

Their proposal calls for submerging the equivalent of around 20,000 truckloads of boulders in a triangular pattern — the pointy side facing the sea — 600 feet offshore. It would also restore a beach along the seawall, initially using roughly 50,000 dump-truck loads of sand.

“What we would like to do is create a new equilibrium by restoring the beach to its historical dimensions,” Battalio said. “Together they should reduce the wave height and the frequency of waves reaching the seawall.”

Battalio said the proposal would cost around $100 million to expand the beach and build the offshore reef. That cost would be in addition to the city’s more than $80 million seawall plan.

Last year, the Trump Administration shortlisted the city for a $50 million grant to help pay for the seawall’s replacement. But the federal government canceled the program that would have provided the grant. Now the city is seeking additional funding while awaiting the federal government’s restart of that program.

“Usually people look at the price tag and go, ‘That’s too big, we don’t wanna do that, why don’t we just build a wall?’” Battalio said. “But just building walls is not working.”

The locals said that the combination, while an expensive suite of solutions, could benefit the coastal ecosystem and the high-dollar real estate that sits behind the existing seawall. And then there’s the possibility of creating a “world-class surfable wave” in Pacifica, said Adam Libert, an area surfer and engineer.

“I think that would create real economic value of coming to Pacifica and watching surf competitions from the pier,” Libert said. “It’s a vision of not just this kind of dystopian world where sea level rise happens, and we get in big fights about managed retreat, but rather how do we actually build a world we want to live in and achieve positive outcomes.”

Tom Kendall, a Pacifica surfer and retired civil engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, hopes “it becomes very popular with local interests,” who could encourage the city to pursue it.

‘Pacifica is the canary in the coal mine’

The city’s plan to rebuild the seawall 4 feet higher along Beach Boulevard would slow erosion and reduce, but not eliminate, all overtopping and flooding in the short term.

While engineers finish the design of the seawall, Pacifica’s Mayor Christine Boles is concerned that a taller seawall could mean “more wave energy,” which “could cause more overtopping and impact the roadway, homes and people.

“A reef would help dissipate that energy so we don’t have all that dangerous overtopping,” Boles added.

The pilot project could show the city how to slow erosion elsewhere in Pacifica. Over the last decade, Boles said, the city has lost 11 homes and three apartment buildings.

“The city is limited in time to be creative,” Boles said. “To have people who are willing to step back and look a little bit more creatively about what other options might be available is super exciting.”

Several artificial reefs have been built in Australia and New Zealand. Another, constructed in Southern California, was ultimately removed because waves deteriorated it. Oceanside is currently testing a physical model of a potential buildout.

Artificial reefs “haven’t been tested in such an active, strong ocean environment as we have here,” Boles said. She hopes Pacifica, home to fewer than 40,000 people, can become a proving ground for this protection that includes some nature-based principles.

“Pacifica is the canary in the coal mine for the effects of a warming ocean,” Boles said. “So wouldn’t it be great if the reef did work?”

She’s less sure that the project will create an epic surf break. But if the possibility motivates the community, she said she’ll encourage it.

‘I don’t think we are looking at a silver bullet’

Pacifica still needs to study the reef’s scale, how much sand is needed and its environmental impacts, said Borja Gonzalez Reguero, a professor with the Coastal Science and Policy Program at UC Santa Cruz.

“So far it’s a concept, but it could be a viable one,” Gonzalez Reguero said. He qualified that by saying the reef is not a “silver bullet” solution on its own.

“The beach on its own won’t be a solution,” he said. “Or the rock armory or the flood wall. Altogether, that could be a solution.”

Gonzalez Reguero said that Pacifica needs fixes, as larger waves and rising sea levels will only worsen the city’s challenges due to climate hazards and sea level rise.

“That’s bad news for Pacifica,” Gonzalez Reguero said.

But Gonzalez Reguero said that slowing waves with a mostly underwater network of boulders or other materials could reduce pressure on the seawall and lower repair costs. He suggests the city further develop a strategy to adapt its entire coastline for future waves and higher tides. Boles said that Pacifica plans to launch a visioning process for the entire coastline this fall, with significant public input.

If the goal is to reduce erosion beating up the seawall, Gonzalez Reguero said, slowing waves is an integral step to consider.

San Mateo County has discussed the feasibility of the artificial reef with the Center for Coastal Climate Resilience at UC Santa Cruz. Patrick Barnard, the group’s research director, said he has questions about the project’s scale and its potential effects on nearby beaches, water levels, and wave energy.

“The gap with a lot of these solutions is that there hasn’t been enough testing to understand how well they perform,” Barnard said. “These are the kinds of solutions that, if they work, could be worth pursuing, but they need to be evaluated thoroughly.”