Surfing Waves

Ok so it's probably a really dumb/obvious answer but i'm trying to learn as much as i can! This is the wave at my local (well i say local, 2 hrs away but closest and favourite!) break, is it a left or a right wave? Cos it's kinda breaking both ways and in 2 dif places, what would it be classed as? Thanks and hope this pic works!

ahh, good ol' cayton bay eh! you wont see waves that good all too frequently over here!
it's a beach break so the waves break all over the place, it could be a right or a left depending on which way you choose to go!

sarahjayne wrote:Ok so it's probably a really dumb/obvious answer but i'm trying to learn as much as i can! This is the wave at my local (well i say local, 2 hrs away but closest and favourite!) break, is it a left or a right wave? Cos it's kinda breaking both ways and in 2 dif places, what would it be classed as? Thanks and hope this pic works!

Beautiful conditions but I'd call this one a close out ,but if you look at the headland to the north that's a left hander.
The wave that is breaking both ways is closing out in the middle of the picture and if the edge you can see on the left hand side of the picture is a right hander if it doesn't close out!
Now how to tell,
You judge the wave as if you were sitting out the back facing towards the beach, a right hander breaks away from you on your right side a left hander breaks way from you on your left side, of course this means when you look from the beach everything is opposite, a left breaks to your right and a right breaks to your left, not dumb at all .
Just a bit more Goofy footers ( right foot forward riders) are on their forehand going left and on their backhand going right.
Natural footers ( left foot forward riders) are on their forehand going right and on their backhand going left
Some people who you might call ambidextrous if they were using their hands are able to switch foot whilst surfing and then all the above changes but that's not me I'm just a plain old ordinary goofyfooter, are you confused I hope not, I hope you get to a level where you can surf in conditions like that

Ah thanks both of you! yep good old cayton, used to live in Yorkshire and was always over in Scarbs but moved to Manchester now so don't get over too often, yeah i had to trawl through sooo many pics to find this one! maybe once a year lol but hey u gotta love it!

Thanks Jaffa great explanation i'm a goofy footer too, when i'm able to actually stay on it that is! But loving it none the less, just wish i could pick up a beach and bring it a lil closer

Live in yorkshire also! just finished uni so have galactic amounts of time so hitting the ol' waves anytime theres something ridable! fortunately there's been a few freakish summer swells almost that good!

The closest ive come this summer is watching the north bay webcam in jealousy that i'm off to work! Tried booking a lesson 3 times this summer on the rare occasion i had a few days off work but was always cancelled due to it been flat - typical! Crossing my fingers for October as i have another week off and determined to get wet

You might have to try a slice of Devon ( north coast ) next holidays.

Yeah i'd love to get down there, found a few decent b&b's for good prices but travel is the problem, its around £150 just for return train fare, can get certain journeys slightly cheaper but they are the 14 hour trips! For that price i could get flights to the Canaries and be there in half the time and i think i know which of those i'd prefer to do haha, looking at a surf school holiday for maybe September next yr, probably Portugal/Canaries but hopefully get a fair bit practice in before then now the surf friendly weather is heading this way have you ever surfed in the UK yourself?

I haven't surfed in the UK yet although i've been a number of times as my wife has family scattered from Berkshire to Inverness and some down in Devon but of course then it's obligation street to visit relatives.
Also our son lives in Austria so lots of occasions to try , been to the various beaches each time I've come over to see what I could do, but no luck,.
I aim to surf both the Severn Bore and the Mascaret in France and plan to have a when I'm 64 surf fortnight with my son ( he rides a kneeboard) in Portugal, the Azores or Canaries.
Traveling on the off chance of surf is not always rewarding as you can coincide with a flat spell or arrive when it is just too big.

Australians who live near a beach have no idea how lucky they are until they travel to somewhere like the UK so I applaud everyone who is doing it tough and still stoked.

There is a strange phenomena though our European relatives don't visit Australia as it is too far to go, too dear, too difficult but they expect and think it's easier less distance and cheaper to fly to Europe from Australia Warrants a go figure

jaffa1949 wrote:I aim to surf both the Severn Bore

Give me a years notice and i will brew some special bore mead to celebrate the occasion!

KS