Editing Coast (section)

====Destructive and constructive waves====

Swash is the shoreward flow after the break, backwash is the water flow back down the beach. The relative strength of flow in the swash and backwash determines what size grains are deposited or eroded. This is dependent on how the wave breaks and the slope of the shore.<ref name="field studies method" />
Depending on the form of the breaking wave, its energy can carry granular material up the beach and deposit it, or erode it by carrying more material down the slope than up it. Steep waves that are close together and break with the surf [[plunging breaker|plunging]] down onto the shore slope expend much of their energy lifting the sediment. The weak swash does not carry it far up the slope, and the strong backwash carries it further down the slope, where it either settles in deeper water or is carried along the shore by a longshore current induced by an angled approach of the wave-front to the shore. These waves which erode the beach are called destructive waves.<ref name="BBC" />
Low waves that are further apart and break by [[Spilling breaker|spilling]], expend more of their energy in the swash which carries particles up the beach, leaving less energy for the backwash to transport them downslope, with a net constrictive influence on the beach.<ref name="BBC" />