Surfing Waves

oldmansurfer wrote:I went out today and was caught inside with a strong current wanting to draw me deeper into the lineup. I could touch the bottom so I stood and walked sideways to get out of the strong sideways current and out of the lineup. If I wasn't able to walk I would have had to come in on the beach and walk sideways to a place out of the lineup and then walk my board out. Mostly I was able to hold my board above the breaking wave and lean into it to keep from getting swept backward.

I run into longshore currents. They don’t cause problems getting out but they force me to waste energy paddling to stay in position for a good takeoff. I try to anticipate this on Magic Seaweed by avoiding times with cross winds and swell. For example…


Since BO faces south I expect a sweep current at 3 pm because the wind and swell combine forces from the West. That said, it’s not always accurate.

Does anyone have insight into this or use advanced surf forecast tools?

I don't have the luxury of picking when or where I get to surf so I just go out and deal with what is there. Consequently I become skilled at dealing with difficult surf

In my experience, magicseaweed tends to exaggerate swell size. I've been skunked a few times after having relied on their forecasts.

The most conservative and accurate free site is surf-forecast.com

Or spring for surfline, which is very detailed. I think it's 50 a year, which is pretty reasonable.

I think the break I surf always has a sideways current if there are any waves of any direction. Currents go in circles they have to go sideways. The bigger the waves the stronger sideways. The place I surf is a bay with reef on both sides and the waves come off the reef and go back sideways and out. Pretty much if there are waves those currents are there. In between those constant currents there are usually multiple circles of currents that form outgoing rips and ingoing rips with inside sideshore current and offshore sideshore current to match. The flow of water from the river adds to the compexity of the currents but this weekend the sideshore was probably due in great part to the river flow.