Surfing Waves

The forecast is all over the place.

I'm looking to drive to Jacksonville, FL to devirginize the new board. The waves were at 4 ft/ 1.5 stars a couple of days ago..it went up a little, and now has dropped to 3 ft, no stars.

What do you guys know about the site and how accurate it is? I've used it twice before planning a weekend or two, and don't recall whether or not it was accurate.

I'm going this Friday if anyways in the area. I might end up driving by myself, but I can't stare at the new board with no wax on it in my bedroom.

Also...next week looks like something is starting to develop there maybe? Just need some opinions. It's a 4/5 hour drive there.

Take everything longetr than 2/3 days away as only an indication unless you know how to combind WAM data with pressure charts. and the way weather systems move.

Read the information on the size.

I have used it a fair bit and it is relatively accurate although I have had a few surprises sometimes Sorry mate, looks like your in for a long day of driving! As papa said, only check 2 or 3 days in advance at the most. I don't actually go on the swell chart star rating system I just check each individual tab, swell, period and wind which seems to be accurate.

I use it as a guide only, and not really for long range predictions, it can be fairly unreliable for the areas i mostly surf, East Coast UK, because of a lack of wave bouys. It hardly ever picks up the SE sells we sometimes get.

Ignor the stars.. use your head and your going to have to put some effort into learhning what makes where work and when and under what conditions etc.

Try wetsand.com

I find it a little bit better for here. MSW has all the info but it's a bit more difficult to process, while wetsand pretty much just tells you straight up. I've never found the star system to work anyways.

Thanks guys. It's at 2 ft. with one star for friday.

I might still make the drive...who knows...

do it!!

Any waves are good waves, as long as there are some waves.

tomcat360 wrote:do it!!

Any waves are good waves, as long as there are some waves.

Inspirational. I don't need much bigger anyways...I suck. Lol.

Is anyone arund Jacksonville? Wanna meet up? I'm bringing my skimboard crazy friend along, so I could use a surf buddy!

I would if it wasnt like 15 hours away

I think wood is in that area.

I think most wave forcasting sites should be taken as rough estimates and should be supplemented with other tools.

Check this one out too...
http://www.swellinfo.com/

oh, how did I forget.

NOAA has bouy info you can check out, find one offshore of where you're going to surf. It's the real stuff.

I use magic seaweed to get a rough idea of the size, I combine that with looking at wind maps, pressure charts and the US Navy website.
Its easy enough to predict certain spots and once you know what makes your local work you'll be able to just look at the swell size, direction, period and wind and you're off!
Some spots are easier to predict than others and you just have to suck up the 7 crappy days and 2 ordinary days in exchange for that one day of perfection!
Any surf is good surf for me as I need the practice!!!