Shallow water waves and a host of long wave phenomena are commonly investigated by various models of nonlinear evolution equations. Examples include the Korteweg-de Vries, the Camassa-Holm, and the Whitham-Broer-Kaup (WBK) equations. Here a generalized WBK system is studied via the multi-linear variable separation approach. A special class of wave profiles with discontinuous derivatives ("peakons") is developed. Peakons of various features, e.g. periodic, pulsating or fractal, are investigated and interactions of such entities are studied.