Surfing Waves

Disclaimer: I can see how some people might find this video a bit dry. If you have a short attention span, then it might be better to skip this one. Still, I learned a lot about beach fishing. Who knows? Maybe it will come in handy someday. Understanding the contours of a beach break will definitely be useful to me.

Yeah I have a short attention span but the first part of that was interesting

RinkyDink wrote:Understanding the contours of a beach break will definitely be useful to me.

Nice post! My break usually has 2 sandbars with a deep trough in between and this allows really long rides when the tide is coming in. I can take a right over the outer sandbar, coast over the trough, then pick up the wave as a left and ride it into shore.

i also surf in a beach break when its big well i dont even try go in because the waves break fast and at the same time from one side of the beach to another you only see a big wave with 200-300 meters of lenght breaking lol. only medium or small waves work there

I surf a beach break that has a much more complex sandbar distribution than in that video due to reef on both sides and a river on one side. Big surf or the river also often shapes a sand bar into a long angular sandbar with gaps and many other inside sandbars too.

I fish a lot as well and knowing how a beach is structured doesn't seem to work for me...

One place I surf goes beach, channel, inner sand bar, channel, outer sand bar. In bigger swells you get waves on the outer sand bar and can get some really nice longish rides, but you also get a horrendous shore break on the inner sandbar. You have to paddle though the inner channel right off the beach (too deep to stand) until you get to the inner sand bar impact zone - you can stand but its right where the waves are breaking. In a big swell the inner channel has a huge sideways sweep to deal with as well. Having managed to get through that, you have to paddle through the next channel full of white water to the outer impact zone. Through that, then paddle a bit further and have a rest and hope there are no set waves... there are rip channels but they aren't very deep so waves are still breaking

But its a good beach, except when the swell hits the sand bar direct on and then you get 100m of simultaneous close out.

dtc wrote:I fish a lot as well and knowing how a beach is structured doesn't seem to work for me...

You gotta start thinking like a fish. The fish are all sitting in the troughs waiting for the waves breaking on the sandbars to bulldoze the sandbar critters right into their open mouths at the edge of trough.

By the way, the paddle-out to the break you mentioned sounds like a major ordeal, but it sounds like it's worth it.