Surfing Waves

Still looking to drive down to Jacksonville this week, and while the air temp will be about 40, the water temp is 65 so I think I might be able to brave it.

I have some questions though..

22MPH SE...is that going to make waves un surfable? MPH-wise and direction wise, what makes waves garbage or good? You have to forgive me...I'm stoopid.

Here' s a post to the forecast I'm trying to gauge. I know I asked last week, but I promise after one or two treks I won't hassle you gusy any more.
http://magicseaweed.com/Jacksonville-Beach-Surf-Report/345/

If there is no swell then onshore wind is good because it will make waves, just not very good waves. Wind chop can be really fun.

Ive got no idea about the location you're talking about, but in general - 22mph onshore (ie blowing at the shore) will result in blown out whitewater, while 22mph offshore will either blow the waves flat (for a small swell), or hold up the face (for a large swell) but make it very difficult to paddle into and possibly turn the wave into a beach dump (ie not break properly and then close out very close to the shore).

So 22mph is unlikely to be great. But its not so strong that you wouldnt find a working wave if you can find some shelter.

Hope that helps.

Having just looked at the MSW page - that'll be flat.

When looking at forecasts you have to look at the swell height, period, and direction. Wind speed ans direction will dtermine how clean the waves will be, for the most part. Swell direction is obvious, you want it heading towards the beach. With swell period, the bigger the number, the farther away the waves came from. Like here in the Gulf where I Surf we only get about 6-8 second periods. Short range wid chop most of the time. In contrast, Hawaii gets swell periods upwards of 15-18+ seconds. So basicly if you have a swell running at 4ft 6 sec. it wont be all that great. But if that same 4 ft. swell was running at 12 sec. then you got some fun long period Waves. They will be bigger, faster, and more powerfull at 12 sec. Now throw some wind on it, and everything changes a little. Onshores knock the tops of the waves, making them musy, or even unridable. Offshores can make the waves hold up and barrel, or i=as said before, too much offshore and it won't let the wave break on the sandbar/reef making it break onshore.

Surfing the north side of a large jetty would probably be your best bet, but even that may not be that good. (I'm not familiar with the FL area)

Those winds would be mostly off-shore for the gulf side, but I doubt there is a big enough swell to push through the strong winds.