Surfing Waves

Where is everyone?

I'm here, but strangely the boss seems to want me to do some work today - outrageous!!

Im here..but Im soooo bored

No Cheezee to keep you entertained!!

hehe apparently not today
maybe my cheezee meister is busy, I miss him

Mornin'

Bit nippy this morning!!

Tell me about it! well sunny tho.. I'll be sk8in to work today I think! Rare to get dry roads this time of year.

i was bloody frozen this morning, god i hate winter about the only thing i do like about it is empty lineups

Bummer, just found out that my trip to the south coast this weekend has been scuppered by a lack of finances!!

Plus only having a summer suit was beginning to put me off!

Its gonna be flat flat flat on the south coasy anyway!

north coasts should be ok for saturday though :D :D

i think you could get away with a summer suit though at least for a few more weeks

Phil wrote:i think you could get away with a summer suit though at least for a few more weeks

I was fine last weekend in a 3/2... but the air temperature was way higher than it is now... Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

Dammit - earlier in the week the buoys were showing about 5 ft with 11 sec intervals.

Now it's 4 ft with 4 sec!

Still I'm not going anyway so I don't care!

ive been in my 5/3 since october but might as well be in a 3/2 the amount it flushes out, gonna try and get another winter out of it though, then cough up the cash for a decent winter suit next year

sinistapenguin wrote:Dammit - earlier in the week the buoys were showing about 5 ft with 11 sec intervals.

Where do you surf on the south Sinista? And are you, by chance, looking at magic seaweed?

Not sure about further along the coast (Devon, Cornwall) but for most of the south coast, 5ft on the bouys equates to about kneehigh on the beach

I usually only consider the south coast when the bouys say 6ft+

I was looking at Boscombe (cos my mate lives there) and yes, it was magicseaweed.

I know it was going to be small, but I'd take a foot at this time of the year. Until I can justify the money for a winter suit my surfing stops from around now until March at the earliest!

Still, a winter suit is on my Birthday list for next year, along with some new fins.

Anywhere else I should be looking at on the South Coast - cornwall/ devon excluded (too far)

Cheers

Sinista

Ah, boscombe... I remember leaving my fins embedded in the sand there...


Im not a huge fan of bournemouth/boscombe - I think its the strange tide thing. It seems there isnt a 'proper' push, and also that the shore break gives a real short ride. Leaving only the point off the piers, which can be pretty good but gets a bit heavy with the locals when its firing

sinistapenguin wrote:Anywhere else I should be looking at on the South Coast

The south coast basically goes kimmeridge - bournemouth - wittering - brighton. There's other spots here and there, but nothing classic to get excited about (as far as I know, anyway).

If you go east of the IoW, then wittering works on low to mid tide (turns into a hideous shore dump at high tide) and can get pretty good - on a good day it can be a bit like saunton
Not as long a ride, but good mellow waves on an uncrowded beach break.

A bit further east is hotpipe (between shoreham and brighton) which works, again, on low to mid tide. Nice beach break, with the added bonus of a point off the pipe, and some shelter from the SW winds


Then there's brighton itself - not a huge fan of the pier break, rarely works. And then the marina - scary stuff, and there's local issues too

I suppose if you've got a conveniently places mate at boscombe then thats the place to go!
Southborne and highcliff can be pretty good too - no shelter from the wind though.

Drowning - any pointers on how to predict Wittering?

Word on most of the review sites is that it's seriously inconsistent.

sinistapenguin wrote:Drowning - any pointers on how to predict Wittering?

Word on most of the review sites is that it's seriously inconsistent.

No more than the rest of the south coast!

But, yeah, you need to be pretty sure of your forecast before you make the trip.
First of all, it only works through low and mid tide, above that and groynes and beach dump make it almost unsurfable. Okay, Ive surfed it at high tide once and the wall of pebbles coming straight at me scared the willies out of me

Wits can work in three ways -

1. Wind slop. Pretty easy to work out, if thats your thing, but personally I'd rather travel somewhere else.

2. Swell from the south. If theres a big ol' low down to the south west of the UK, wittering can get good swell.

3. Swell from the west. If theres a massive low parked out west of ireland, then the swell wraps around and can produce lovely clean waves. But this only ever works if the swell on the north coast of devon is way overhead.

The trick for getting these swells is to make sure the low pressure is going to be around for a few days. It doesnt work like croyde, for instance, where a short lived low sends a pulse of swell which works for a day or a few hours. It only works if theres going to be waves for a few days - long enough for the local factors to be less relevant and for a nice period swell to generate. The best time tends to be just as the low is passing away from the UK as the winds drop.

The shelter from the wind decreases as you head from west wit, east wit, to bracklesham. They all get blown out quite easily so as well as the swell, its crucial to be looking for light winds (<10mph)


Hope that helps!