As I was falling asleep and visualizing breakwaters (design, manufacture, and deployment thereof), I thought about how my favored breakwater design works by making the waves pile up and break (as opposed to being a wall that breaks the waves). And suddenly I realized that, if it was deployed in a circle to protect a seastead colony…it would be a never-ending surf break!
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“if it was deployed in a circle to protect a seastead colony…it would be a never-ending surf break!”
But why would all the waves meet at the centre of the colony? The waves I know move in the same direction as those around them, thus the breakwater would only create a 180 degree surf break.
Add surfing to the tourism industry. Especially tutoring for surfing, because it likely to be very consistent, all the time.
I did not say that all the waves would head to the center of the colony. I said the breakwater needed to be a full circle, in order to protect against waves coming from any direction. At any given time, the amount of the breakwater that is actually breaking waves and forming a surf break will depend on the direction of the waves. Usually, heavy waves only come from one direction, so this will be on one side of the colony.
Kind of sounds like what’s described in this New Scientist article.