• Home
  • Books
  • Journal
  • Podcast
  • About
  • Contact
  • Search

Mobile Menu

  • Home
  • Books
  • Journal
  • Podcast
  • About
  • Contact
  • Search
  • Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content

Laura Joy Lloyd

Reading. Writing. Listening.

Header Left

Laura Joy Lloyd

Header Right

  • Home
  • Books
  • Journal
  • Podcast
  • About
  • Contact
  • Search
  • Home
  • Books
  • Journal
  • Podcast
  • About
  • Contact
  • Search

Waves and Beaches

Waves and Beaches has been a handy reference for surfers, sailors, oceanographers, and those who love the sea since 1964. An updated edition by the outdoor gear company Patagonia includes beautiful new photography and a tough cover designed for longevity.

Home » Non-Fiction » Waves and Beaches

Posted by Laura Joy Lloyd In: Non-Fiction, Laura's Library Tags: Nature, History, Travel, Oceana, Book Review

Dear Reader,

Waves and Beaches: The Powerful Dynamics of Sea and Coast by Willard Bascom and Kim McCoy has been a handy reference for surfers, sailors, oceanographers, and those who love the sea since 1964. An updated edition by the outdoor gear company Patagonia includes beautiful new photography and a tough cover designed for longevity on a boat or in a beach cottage. It’s the sort of book you can feel just fine about jumping around in to read and learn as you like.

For me, the most fascinating sections of the book are the explanations of the different wave types and what causes them.

I learned that wind waves are specific waves influenced by wind velocity, the duration of the time the wind blows, the extent of the open water across which it blows. On the other side of the spectrum, sea waves are determined by irregular and indefinable limits and great storm waves have dimensions that are mostly guesswork. (And get this: great storm waves raise questions about whether the eye has been deceived or the current theories are inadequate. Isn’t that mind-boggling to think about?)

A rogue wave is “a great solitary wave whose crest towers above the rest and scares the living daylights out of the luckless mariners in its path.”

Internal waves travel on the planes between slightly different densities within the ocean. (I didn’t even know there was such a thing!) Then there are unique waves on troubled water, which is water with oil, mud, ice, or kelp in it. Swell is what happens when waves move out from under the wind that generated them. And these are just the waves that occur in deep water! Waves in shallow surf include plunging, spilling, collapsing, and beating waves.

Here is one of the most intriguing passages from the book:

There are many kinds of waves in the ocean, and they differ greatly in form, velocity, and origin. There are waves too long and low to see and waves that travel below the sea surface within water layers of different densities. Waves may be raised by ships, or landslides, the passage of the Moon and Sun, by earthquakes, or changes in atmospheric pressure. Probably there are kinds of waves that have not yet been discovered.

“Probably there are kinds of waves that have not yet been discovered?” Wow!

I know many of you dear readers love the ocean just like I do, so why not ask your local library for this helpful and fun book? And then let’s talk about what your favorite sections of the book are!

Here with you,

Laura

P.S. Want to check out all the books in my library about the ocean? Head to the Oceana section.

Related Posts

You may be interested in these posts from the same category.

God’s Word for Gardeners

The Wexford Carol

A Goose Creek Christmas

The Mistletoe Matchmaker

The Proxy Marriage

An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving

Minding Frankie

Swell

The Lost Letter

The Story of Arthur Truluv

Funny in Farsi

Bibliostyle

« Previous
Next »

Site Footer

Copyright © 2025 · Laura Joy Lloyd
All Rights Reserved.
Website by Stormhill Media
Log in