Surfing Waves

The last few times I have been surfing on a 6+ day (that’s according to Surfline, more like 3-4’ )
Surfing on my 9' 2" , At my local point break in Santa Cruz, the water is really choppy, making waves hard to catch. I cannot generate any paddling speed. The best I can do is shoulder hop. Since there is no wind, and weather is good, why is there so much chop? Swell is coming from The WNW.
I see other surfers struggling, although some strong paddlers, are able to catch waves.
Although I have very little experience in bigger surf (I have surfed for years, but not often, mostly on 2’ summer swell). I remember going out on bigger days, when it was glassy, years ago. Maybe I just remember it differently? Maybe there is more than one swell direction in the water? Are messy conditions caused by a low, or high pressure systems offshore?
Since I surf so little now, I would love to be able to predict the conditions better, so I can enjoy going out on bigger days too.

Any thooughts?
Tomboy

surfinggrrrl wrote:Since I surf so little now, I would love to be able to predict the conditions better, so I can enjoy going out on bigger days too.

Surfline predicts choppy conditions for Capitola today.

Under Surf Height you can see 3 swells - 5ft at 10s W (279°), 4ft at 8s WSW (252°), and 2ft at 14s SSW (197°) - that will create a bumpy ride. Between 11am and 2pm, the bar charts show 11-12 mph winds coming from the WSW while the main swell pumps from the SW, and this will add to the chop.

Hope this helps.

My guess would be the swell was generated nearby and because of that the wave speed is a little faster making it harder to catch and the conditions less organized.

Chop can sometimes be helpfull to get into the wave. But chopy conditions are unpredictible and the wrong chop in the wrong moment can block you from getting in.

Learn to look over you shoulders to see behind you what the wave is doing. If you're paddling for the wave and see a chop making the wave more steep give it another paddle stroke and you're in.

There is a great podcast (I actually discovered it here) called Surf Mastery and the latest one featured an interview with a pro surf forecaster (Ben Macartney) and he talks about these kinds of conditions and why they occur.

Worth a listen, lots of good info.

I have a couple of boards that are on the heavy side; a little weight helps smooth things out in chop. What I din't like is when going for a wave and the chop slows your paddle, or you,re in and suddenly you're out because a chop ripple smacks you back a little.

surfinggrrrl wrote:I see other surfers struggling, although some strong paddlers, are able to catch waves.

Big waves move faster than small ones and require more effort to catch. I sit about 20 feet outside where most waves break and sprint when a peak arrives. As the wave lifts the back of my board and it starts to glide, I always make at least 3 extra paddles to make sure I'm IN before popping up.

Do what you can to build strength - swimming, resistance band, or more surfing!

Thanks to all. I never noticed the box under "surf height" on Surfline. Thanks Bo Man. Wish I had to juice to sprint into the wave, and the chop seems to slow my already wimpy paddle, even when paddling out. I have a heavy 10' 4" board, but I am afraid that's a bit sluggish for bigger waves.

I surf where it is choppy frequently. I never feel like it hinders my ability to catch a wave. It does hinder my ability to ride a wave and when it is really choppy I don't attempt full on hard turns because I know I will fail. Waves are made by wind and so are chops. They are just little wavelets that haven't had time to organize into larger waves. Perhaps what you are seeing is double waves where it looks like a huge long chop on the front of another wave. Those waves can be hard or tricky to catch. Bigger waves can be more difficult to catch too because they go faster. Also waves produced from a weather system closer to the beach will have waves that are faster for their size. They also tend to be choppier waves as well. Waves tend to be more organized over distance given that no other significant swells are mixing in with it and especially over long distances in relatively shallow water as the continental shelves off the east and west coasts of the USA. I forgot to mention that tide and currents can affect the speed of a wave and make it more difficult to catch as well or easier depending on the situation.