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Erosion remedy steams surfers

Artificial "T-groins" stave off the waves at Upham Beach.

By NICK JOHNSON, Times Staff Writer
Published January 13, 2008

A beachgoer watches a small wave crash against the T-groins that line Upham Beach on Wednesday. T-groins are sand-filled tubes installed to slow beach erosion. That's a good thing for nearby residents, but a real downer for legions of surfers who once swarmed the beach.
	[Lara Cerri | Times]

ST. PETE BEACH - Upham Beach was once lauded as one of the best surf spots on Florida's west coast.

But since an experimental system of T-groins was installed to slow erosion, many surfers have taken their boards elsewhere.

"You can't really even put it on your map as a surf spot anymore," said Greg Agerskov, who runs the Surf Shack on St. Pete Beach.

Agerskov remembers when a surfer could ride the waves on Upham Beach 100 yards down the shoreline and winter cold fronts would leave parking lots packed by local surfers.

But the same waves and currents that were prized by the surf community were also causing problems for a group of beach residents.

Upham Beach was eroding at an alarming rate, requiring costly renourishment by the Army Corps of Engineers every four years and threatening a number of nearby condos.

In response to the erosion, the county and state jointly funded a $1.5-million project consisting of five T-groins, or large T-shaped sand bags, designed to disrupt the strong currents and hold the beach in place.

A side effect of the structures is that the waves don't break the same way they used to. Instead they bounce off the groins and reduce the waves to a chop, surfers say.

Agerskov said that while a storm front can still bring surfable waves on occasion, the location pales in comparison to its former self and many go home disappointed.

The experimental project was completed in 2005 and has been monitored by the county and a research team from the University of South Florida.

Nicole Elko, the county's coastal coordinator, said that so far the T-groins are "doing what they were designed to do."

The beach still suffers from erosion and will continue to need maintenance.

"Nourishment at Upham Beach is a fact. The question is how frequently we will have to nourish it," Elko said.

She estimates that with the groins in place the beach will need to be nourished every six years, as opposed to every four.

The next nourishment is scheduled for 2009.

That will bury the groins by adding about 400 feet of width to the beach. In the meantime, the groins are a dominating shoreline feature that many people find offensive.

The tubes are about 6 feet in diameter and bright yellow.

"Why in the world would you put this atrocity in to have the same results you would have had if you kept nourishing the beach?" asked Lenny Stamos, owner of Lenny's Surf Shop. "It's aesthetically unpleasing, economically unpleasing, and the surfers are going elsewhere."

Stamos also recalls the days when a winter storm would pack his store and the Upham Beach parking lots. Now, he said, many locals head south to Venice Beach when the surf is up.

That's not likely to change, according to Elko.

"This is a temporary experimental project; that's why we built the structures out of geotubes instead of rock like a normal jetty," she said. Once the tubes meet their life expectancy of five to 10 years, they will be replaced with permanent structures, Elko said.

When the permanent structures go in, the beach will continue to be nourished regularly.

Upham acts as a feeder beach, supplying sand to the shoreline to the south as it erodes.

Although the days of great surfing at Upham Beach may be over, there is one board sport that may persevere.

Tyler Cordasco of Gulfport said the exposed T-groins create the perfect conditions for skim-boarding.

"You can just hop right on a wave. It's kind of like surfing, almost, with these things," he said.

Nick Johnson can be reached at nickjohnson@sptimes.com or 893-8361.

"This is a temporary experimental project; that's why we built the structures out of geotubes instead of rock like a normal jetty."

Nicole Elko, county coastal coordinator

[Last modified January 12, 2008, 21:32:28]