Surfing Waves

Hey guys,

As you all might know there is/are surf reports to check out the surf-forecast at your (favorite) surf spot. I use magicseaweed.com and/or windguru.cz but know I have noticed the following problem: when the surf-forecast told on friday that the waves on saturday will be 1.2 meters high, and on saturday morning they said the waves will be 1.4 meters.. there weren't ANY WAVES AT ALL(!!) that day and this wasn't the first time I noticed the surf-forecasts to be incorrect so I was wondering how you check your forecast (please remember I surf in the Netherlands and it could be that a lot of Dutch "spots" don't have a forecast).

Thanks for your help
ZVS

Right, both magic seaweed and windguru are not surf forecasts. They are surf forecasting tools. You need to look at all the data that it shows, and then work out if it'll be working and where will be the best spot.
So... 1.4m... but whats the period? 1.4m at 5s is flat (or just windswell), 1.4m at 10s is a good wave, 1.4m at 15s is a big wave (location will make a difference to this - you need to know your local conditions). Then there's direction - windguru etc will tell you which direction the wave is coming from. If its coming straight at the beach, then great, you've got a wave. But if its at 90 degrees to the beach, it'll sail right on past.
Then you've got wind direction - onshore and it'll be a mess but a wave, light offshore and it'll be a nice clean wave, strong offshore will blow it flat.

The swell size on MSW and windguru are just one bit of the puzzle - and you need to work it all out

Thank you for your quick respond.
The period for my surfspot is always around 5 to 7 seconds.
Then the swell direction is like you said almost always straight to the beach.
The wind directions: you said

Then you've got wind direction - onshore and it'll be a mess but a wave, light offshore and it'll be a nice clean wave, strong offshore will blow it flat.

but at my surfspot with onshore winds there aren't any waves at all, with light offshore the waves are nice, and with strong offshore we got (very) good waves.
Then I just got one other question: what is the difference between the primary swell and the secondary swell?

Thanks
ZVS