Fine Structure

Short version: the Earth isn't actually a perfect sphere, it's an oblate spheroid (it bulges in the middle) due to the force created from all that spinning about our axis we do.

So the land at the poles is technically closer to the center of the Earth than the land at the equator - even if both are at sea level. That means that if the Earth were to stop spinning, there would be no force pushing them towards the equator and the oceans would recede towards the poles.

Yes, click the link to see MAPS! (spoiler: California survives! Europe is not so lucky)