Posted on August 10, 2026
Most of the sand at a popular California beach has disappeared.
In the past two weeks, strong swells caused by Hurricane Genevieve have battered the Southern California coast, transforming Tamarack State Beach near Carlsbad from a sandy paradise into a rocky stretch of shoreline. As the sand drifted out into the ocean, riprap boulders that line the beach’s parking lot have moved perilously into unstable positions.
Not only will locals need to adjust to the lack of sand, but the storms also left at least 35 parking spaces blocked off at the parking lot, which has been crumbling without enough protection. Multiple lifeguard towers were also relocated.
The state-owned beach, also known as Carlsbad State Beach, is known as a premier surf spot. The dramatic change occurred just weeks after the beach’s annual Slamarack tradition – an event where hundreds of people pack the beach to cheer on surfers as they surf perilously close to each other.
California State Parks spokesperson Jorge Moreno said the state is now working with “coastal engineers to evaluate potential solutions that will help keep the parking lot open while minimizing further damage.”
“Recent summer swells and high tides have eroded sections of Carlsbad State Beach, including the area in front of the Tamarack parking lot,” Moreno said in an email. “The loss of sand, combined with tides and wave action, has caused the riprap to slough westward onto the beach.”
The department said it’s also coordinating with the California Coastal Commission.
The transformation comes after Tamarack State Beach underwent a beach nourishment project in February 2025, where 400,000 cubic yards of sand were moved from the Agua Hedionda Lagoon to the beach. It’s a project that repeats every one to four years, since sand pours into the lagoon over time. Before that, the dredging happened in 2021 and 2018.
The beach has undergone many sand replenishment projects, a process that’s been practiced in Southern California for nearly a century as one way to keep the sandy shores intact. Ocean beaches are dynamic ecosystems that naturally gain and lose sand over the years, which makes California’s extensive shoreline development difficult to maintain. Artificial structures like jetties and upriver dams have also altered this natural process, forcing governments to try to maintain beaches by dumping tons of sand intermittently. The restoration projects are funded by a mix of federal, state and local dollars, although they rarely provide a permanent solution to the problem of disappearing beaches.
Gary Griggs, an author and a professor of earth and planetary sciences at UC Santa Cruz who has studied the coast and beach nourishment extensively, called sand replenishment projects “a very short-term answer” that won’t fundamentally solve the problem.
“It keeps the property owners happy for a year,” Griggs said. “It keeps the Corps of Engineers busy, but it’s not a long-term solution, and clearly the climate’s changing.”
The latest damage at Tamarack was caused by Hurricane Genevieve, which generated incredibly high wind speeds in the open ocean that then sent strong swells directly toward California’s coastline. While hurricanes don’t happen every year along the coast of California, they’ve happened in the past, he said, and they’ll happen again. “When big waves hit, you know, all bets are off,” Griggs said.
This dramatic transformation of the beach seems exceptional, but this type of rapid sand loss has happened several times in the past. Griggs referenced a November 2001 storm that wiped out newly replenished sand at Torrey Pines State Beach within days, erasing around 160,000 cubic meters of sand that had just been placed months before. “It always surprises people,” Griggs said. “… But if sand wasn’t there naturally, there’s no reason it should stay there over the long term.”
Tamarack State Beach also utilizes riprap to try to prevent erosion, with giant boulders installed to protect the parking lot. Another effort to protect the state beaches, this type of “armoring” is another controversial way to combat beach erosion because it will protect upland land but can accelerate the loss of beach sand below the large boulders.
The recent swells that ripped the sand away from the beach have also been deadly. A 24-year-old man from Fontana died while swimming near Crescent Bay Beach in Laguna Beach on Aug 3.
