Surfing Waves

i was in school today in physics and my teacher said that waves r made from the tide but he's clearly wrong. i was just wonderin if tide has any affect on making or changing waves?

The tide does affect swell, some swell in certain area's is completely tide dependent. I know for a fact that around here at some local surf spots, even if you have perfect conditions but have a high tide you have no chance but i'm not an expert on it.

waves are made form wind, the fetch is the distance from when the wind first blows and when it hits some coast, the bigger the fetch the bigger the wave, that what i learnt in goegraphy

the only case where the tide alone makes a wave is with Tidal bores...

Google it.

The question was can a tide have any affect on making or changing waves. Sure a pushing tide can increase a weak swell, and somewhere that has a huge tidal flow, Bristol Channel, this can increase the wave height, but it sure don't have any effect on making waves.

Here are some links about waves
How Waves Are Made
What Makes The Best Waves
Local Conditions Affecting Wave Quality

You can think of tides as two huge waves that go round the globe, their size is affected by the stage of the moon (biggest at full /new moon).

But waves you surf are create by wind.

tide does really affect the waves, i always go during mid-tide, best time to go in my opinion

Each location differs in the way that it breaks (if it breaks at all) according to which state of the tide. So no One tide is universally the best.

ken wrote:i was in school today in physics and my teacher said that waves r made from the tide but he's clearly wrong. i was just wonderin if tide has any affect on making or changing waves?

Your teacher isn't totally wrong about the relationship between tide and waves. He just missed the most important element of wind. As far as surfing on a high or low tide it depends on the location, swell direction and bottom contour. There are times when surfing at high tide is good if you like mushy wave or surfing the low tide for hallow waves. Thats what is so great about surfing, the conditions are constantly changing and you have to adjust your style and equipment.

hello !!
well the tide affects the wave cose the kevel of water changes ,it means that when there is much water the wave breaks closer to the cost in beachbreaks or to the rocks in reefbreaks and pointbreaks anyway the links that gave u surf patrol explain exactly all the processus. so nothing to add except that each spot has a convenient tide it can be high tide for this one and lowtide for the other and mide tide for an other one
in my area the surf is maily when there is less water possible , loads of point breaks all of them rights :d
keep on riding