Surfing Waves

I am new to the forums, just starting to try and get into surfing and I heard about tide wathces, what is point in them, what do they do? Thanks in advance for your responses

welcome to the forum boogie man...

im sorry i cant help you on the tidal watch front...i have no idea how they work, im sure someone on here does though!

My watch tells the tide times (boys and their toys....)

What do they do? Er, tell you the tide.

Whats the point of them? Er, to let you know what the tide is doing.

Actually the real point of them is to give you something to look at when you're not surfing so you feel - a little bit - like you are really.

isn't the idea that some surf spots work better with incoming/outgoing tides so that you know when your favourite spot is about to show you some love!

A particularly useful thing for me is that I know when my cycle path home is going to be blocked by high spring tides that flood the thames river bank

so does it actually work out the tide heights and stuff for your local spot too then? i thought they just ad high and low tide times

how exactly do they work?

Some tide watches have a dial which shows the high and low water and where it as at the current time, some also have a height dial which shows springs / neeps and everything in between. Once you have a refernce point from tide tables for your favourite break, you set the watch to the times / heights just like you would set the date / time. I've had a couple for several years and they are fairly accurate.