The above photo, taken, I think, from the top of the Castle (an artificial stone structure commissioned by the early railway company), is a view north-west along the promenade at Cleethorpes with the pier (s.p.b.) in the middle distance and the top of the water tower showing beyond. Just as the 19th century lighthouse on Spurn is clearly visible from the south bank so Cleethorpes water tower is a prime landmark from along the south coast of Holderness. The rising land left of the promenade was, before the building of the promenade, a low boulder clay cliff similar to sections of the Holderness coast. The sandy beach below the cliff caught the eye of seaside developers. The ‘cabins’ (selling drinks and ice-cream) like the one in the picture are, I assume, interesting examples of inter-war architecture.
But to get back to waves. Given that waves are the upper part of the circular/elliptical movement of surface water resulting from fluctuations in air pressure on the surface, this usually resulting from wind strength, what I am not clear about is whether a given droplet of surface water is moving in two directions or one. The former appears to be so as the crest of waves move toward the shore, so a given drop-let is moving round and forward (like the Earth spinning and in orbit). If the latter, then the movement towards the shore, of a given droplet, is an illusion. If the former, then with any wave action water from every wave must be backwashing under the circulating surface otherwise the water would just build-up along the shoreline.
Perhaps someone can shed some light on this matter.