The statistical distribution of swash maxima has been analyzed using videobased observations of wave runup excursions during 3 experiments (“DozerDuck”) performed on an ocean beach in North Carolina (USA). The distribution of swash runup maxima compared well with the theoretical one when the beach was planar. The comparison is less satisfactory once beach cusps developed. The possibility that such discrepancy is a result of swash interactions (primarily affecting time series of shoreline elevation collected in front of beach cusp bays) has been analyzed using a simplified (frictionless) ballistic model. This model, modified to account for the effect of swash interactions, indicates that swash interactions do affect the distribution of swash maxima and results are also in agreement with the available observations.
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