CoachA beach is a strip of sand or pebbles piled up by the waves along the shore. When the waves reach the shore at an angle, each wave pushes the grains up the beach at that angle and the water runs back straight down the slope: the grains zigzag along the coast. This movement of sand and pebbles along the shore is longshore drift. A spit is a long, narrow ridge of sand or pebbles built by longshore drift, joined to the land at one end and running out into the sea where the coast turns.
