Surfing Waves

Hello!

Please advise - what conditions range is good for beginner ?

I think of something like 2-4 ft , 8-12 sec.period swell ?

Or 4 ft is too strong for a noob ?
Is 2 ft 7 sec. period swell worth it to try or this is almost flat?

Many thanks in advance!

Do you need to travel to get to the waves (a distance) - otherwise, any size is good up to 4ft. Just go out and do your best with the conditions that are on offer.

Actually, when I was learning I always felt that the best conditions were when I wanted to catch (ie felt comfortable, or not too uncomfortable) catching the set waves (the biggest waves). Its always a bit stressful when most of the waves are too big for you and you spend your time scrambling not to be caught out by the set waves but then having to come in to catch the smaller waves (as bigger waves break further out).

Are you at the stage of catching unbroken waves or still at white water practice stage? 2ft should be surfable, especially if you have a longboard (or a big board relative to your weight)

Hi,

I'm a still a very beginner
I was learning in white water mostly and I tried small green waves for 2 days.

I'm asking as I've discovered that in winter waves are much bigger around Fuerteventura island,
so I'm trying to get prepared and better understand what spots should I look for..

regards

dorin wrote:I think of something like 2-4 ft , 8-12 sec.period swell ?

That's a huge range! It might not seem like much of a difference, but 2ft @ 8s is small, gutless junk, while 4ft @ 12s is solid, powerful surf.

As a newbie, you don't want to be looking at that upper end yet!
For beginners just venturing out onto green waves, a small swell with a long period is best - 2ft @ 12s will give you a small, high quality swell (if the wind is playing nicely) with enough power to play with.
Days like that are few and far between, but a couple of feet around the 10s mark will be fine.

You are only looking at one dimension - Size. You should be more concerned about Shape and Wind direction. There are days when its 2 feet on-shore and dumping un-makeble faces. Then there are days when it's 4 feet light off shore glassy and smooth rollers. Also bottom contours of the break and where it is compared to the swell direction matters also. Sometimes just around the cove the waves might be easier. I have been surfing over 20 years and don't pay attention to those + feet at ? seconds weather info. Some guys are wizards at that. But you as a beginner should not mind. Look more of what the surfer's level at the break you pull up too are at.

As waikikichan said, the same conditions may produce different waves - hence my (somewhat unexplained) query as to whether you have to travel. If you dont have to travel too much, find 3 or 4 beaches (or parts of beaches) that face different directions (eg east, south - or whatever) plus somewhere that is sheltered from the bigger swells (which I suspect are northerly for you?). Then look at the swell direction first and the size second. So small waves from east swell - you want the beach that is most open to the east and will get the main impact, as the wave are small anyway. Big north swell, you want the sheltered or non north facing beach.

Of course, there are local variations galore - points and rocky bottoms (to avoid) or close out beaches etc. But you will eventually figure out what works best for your level under what conditions.

thanks for the replies people!