Beach report Ormond / daytona area

[sherpa t]

Had a run to Port Orange today so I ran 40 to A1A and took a look for Ya-all. The little beach access parking spots are not for 24ft commercial trucks, so I parked at the Bennigans which is by the OutBack on A1A. There is a beach access there.
The time was 1:30 ish so it was after high tide. Beach was water covered,no hunting today. Waves regularly up to the sea wall. They were coming in North east to south west at 20 to 30 degree angle to the shoreline. Across this the really big waves were coming in perpendicular to the shore. The big ones were breaking and pushing water 15 to 20 feet past the little green buildings in the parking lot wear they take your money for beach access.
Sand - No cuts, as far is I could see in eather direction, when the water pulled back the the sand was flat and smooth. There was a little depression radius to it but looking at the staircases and concrete ramps the sand at the sea wall was still fairly normal. About a week and half ago I was there and the sand was high, then dropped off rather steep to the water line. That is where I saw the biggest change, the high chairline sand is gone and it's a long, low angle from the brakeline to the seawall. So sand is moved but very evenly done. Looking at the green posts they looked normal to maybe 4 inches of sand off.
For water detecting the surf was really ruff and mixing. When the angled waves hit the straight in ones it was quite violent. You could watch the angled wave feeding into the large straight one and see it rise up even higher. Certainly not an expert but the conditions looked good to be churning that sand out there.
Last year after the storms there were some big erosion areas north of 40 towards Flagler,the beach is wider and with out the sea walls it was really beat up. I'd expect that again.
There is a beach cam you can view these two beaches with, Daytona beach web cam.
Happy hunting
Sherpa T

 

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[billinstuart]

Daytonas fine white sand does not lend itself to cuts, except at dune lines, of which few exist anymore. Farther north, Ormond starts to turn red from coarse sands from St. augustine coquina deposits. This coarse sand forms a steeper beach, which may allow cuts from waves. The steepness of the beach is proportional to the grain size of the sand...coarse sand, steep beach.

 

[sherpa t]

I do remember the red color and some clusters of stones and rocks.(North of forty) It was much rougher ground, thought maybe from not being groomed like the show beaches, so I learned some more. Thanks Bill excellent as always.

 

[Stirling N5PIP]

Thanks, sherpa t, for the update. My wife and I went there (40 & A1A) this evening at low tide (ha!). The surf was extremely rough. The beach sand has been cut down fairly uniformly north & south of 40. As you said, the chair line is gone and the beach is sloped gradually. It appears that anywhere from 6inches to about 2 feet has been removed. Up by the seawalls the sand is hardpack, but closer to the water the red/Coquina sand is really soft. No jewelry at all. And only a couple of bottle caps. I use a PI Pro and I'm surprised at the minute amount of iron & trash that I'm finding. I only recovered 65 cents in clad. All modern coins BUT they had been buried a long time. It seems that the sufrgods are having some fun with me because everytime I tried to recover a target (even if I was way above the surf line) the waves would suddenly wash into my dig & refill it with sand. On several targets I gave up as I couldn't move sand quick enough. MY wife said that she learned some new cuss words as I was fighting the waves.
Tomorrow several of us are going to try low tide again. Maybe the wind will die down a bit as I'm getting a little tired of getting sandblasted!!

HH,
Stirling, N5PIP
Daytona Beach