Suddenly the shoreline north of Sydney were transformed into the
Cappuccino Coast . Foam swallowed an entire beach and half the nearby
buildings, including the local lifeguards' centre, in a freak display of
nature at Yamba in New South Wales .
One minute a group of teenage surfers were waiting to catch a wave, the
next they were swallowed up in a giant bubble bath. The foam was so
light that they could puff it out of their hands and watch it float away.
Boy in the bubble bath: Tom Woods, 12, emerges from the clouds of
foam after deciding that surfing was not an option
It stretched for 30 miles out into the Pacific in a phenomenon not seen at
the beach for more than three decades. Scientists explain that the foam
is created by impurities in the ocean, such as salts, chemicals, dead
plants, decomposed fish and excretions from seaweed. All are churned
up together by powerful currents which cause the water to form bubbles.
These bubbles stick to each other as they are carried below the surface
by the current towards the shore. As a wave starts to form on the
surface, the motion of the water causes the bubbles to swirl upwards and,
massed together, they become foam.
The foam 'surfs' towards shore until the wave 'crashes', tossing the foam
into the air.
Whitewash: The foam was so thick it came all the way up to the surf club
'It's the same effect you get when you whip up a milk shake in a
blender,' explains a marine expert. 'The more powerful the swirl, the
more foam you create on the surface and the lighter it becomes.' In this
case, storms off the New South Wales Coast and further north off
Queensland had created a huge disturbance in the ocean, hitting a stretch
of water where there was a particularly high amount of the substances
which form into bubbles. As for 12-year-old beachgoer Tom Woods, who
has been surfing since he was two, riding a wave was out of the question.
'Me and my mates just spent the afternoon leaping about in that stuff,' he
said.
'It was quite cool to touch and it was really weird. It was like clouds of air
- you could hardly feel it.'
enjoyed
