Surfing Waves

Hi
In checking my local break (Old Man's beach, Cabo) today I notice the waves were closing out really bad. People getting slammed, or waves just
closing out on them. So I decided not to go out.

It was early AM, no wind, tide of 2.5'
Surfline reports:

3.5' @15 seconds SW at 210 degrees
2.3' @10 seconds S at 174 degrees
1.9' @ 6 seconds NW at 343 degrees

So, is this mean the swell are overlapping? Does that cause more chop and closing out? This is a point break
Can anybody help me interpret the swell report? Its always seems to be a little bit bumpy, but some days its worse
than others. How can I avoid the choppy days?

Thanks
BA

surfinggrrrl wrote:Surfline reports:

3.5' @15 seconds SW at 210 degrees
2.3' @10 seconds S at 174 degrees
1.9' @ 6 seconds NW at 343 degrees

So, is this mean the swell are overlapping?

Yes. There is a strong 3.5' swell along with two weaker swells coming together. I avoid days like this at my beach break because the short period waves break in between the long period ones and create a mess. When it's like this I wait outside until the waves synchronize in a rideable face, or just ride straight in.


The onshore wind in the photo makes it even worse!

You can avoid the chop by looking on the surf forecast for a date and time when there are fewer swells and less wind.

Only you can sort that. Swell reports only are effective when combined with a couple HUNDRED hours of observation at your local. You may notice surfers who come and just watch the waves for awhile and leave. Dong this as well as taking note while in the water on different days at different tides, swells, moon position, season”, wind etc....the report will give you the supporting data but to interpret that, to know that a wave breaks sweet on a sw swell of at least 1.8m but less than 2.6m, when the period is between 12-16 Sec at .4-1.3m tide and offshore winds under 15km takes hours of observation and note taking. Btw, if you ever do put in the work so that you know when it is good, don’t give that info away cheaply.

Once you start building notes, test yourself and “call” the conditions before you see them.

One way that you will know that you’re improving is when you see the lineup stars at the same breaks at the same time you go to a given break that you have determined to be the pick of the bunch at that time.

Closeouts are dependent on the shape of the sea bed and sand movement (assuming you are surfing a beach break). It's not really possible to predict them from the swell forecast.

I lack the available time to choose when I surf so I learn to deal with multiple swells and whatever other conditions might be present. It might not be the best surf but it's way better than not surfing.....for me. I know other surfers don't see it that way. In the picture posted by BoMan many surfers see blown out choppy conditions but I see potential waves to ride.

Big H wrote: You may notice surfers who come and just watch the waves for awhile and leave. y.

as opposed to me, who watches the waves trying to convince myself its still worth going out even though the waves are 6inches high, because set waves will come, they must...

dtc wrote:

Big H wrote: You may notice surfers who come and just watch the waves for awhile and leave. y.

as opposed to me, who watches the waves trying to convince myself its still worth going out even though the waves are 6inches high, because set waves will come, they must...

...right after you paddle in and call it a day!

A couple days ago at my local beach break, it was:

5.6ft@9s NW,
1.6ft@14s SSW,
1.3ft@16s WNW

It wasn't close-out. However the waves came close to each other, and only once in a while there'd come a rideable, but short ride (5 seconds). So what's happening here? Are the rideable waves formed from the 5.6ft@9s NW swell?

different swells (often called primary, secondary, tertiary) are created by different weather patterns. (note: following is taken from Australian BOM) Think of two children throwing large rocks into either end of a pond. The waves will travel out from where the rock impacts the water through to the other side of the pond. Eventually all parts of the pond will have waves caused by both children. The two wave trains will interact with each other where their paths cross, generating higher peaks where the peaks of the wave trains intersect, and lower troughs where the two troughs meet. Even after the last rock has been thrown, the waves generated will continue to exist and interact for some further period until they decay.

Each of the places those rocks land is the centre of a 'weather pattern'. There are usually more than 3 weather patterns affecting any one location, but after 3 the impact is fairly small so not usually taken into account. In your case, the secondary and tertiary swells are a lot smaller than the primary swell, so while they will affect it a bit they arent going to be that much of an issue (eg may create some bumpy conditions or small intervening waves, but not too bad)

In most places a 9s interval is enough to create a surfable wave; but the 'swell period' describes only most powerful waves in a swell, but a swell will have a mix of waves of different periods.

two other things that are relevant:

- wind. Wind can blow larger waves flat or stand up smaller waves and allow them to be surfed (or made harder to surf).
- the way your beach faces. The primary swell you listed is NW, but if your beach faces SW then its simply not going to get most of that swell, because the swell is going on direction and your beach faces the other. Instead you will mostly get the SSW swell and perhaps some refraction

Close out or not, and length of surfable wave, is far more dependent on swell direction than height or period. Swell direction here meaning 'swell direction as it works on your beach'. You can have one beach that is surfable and the beach around the headland that is completely flat, or one that has long peelers and the next is close outs.

So what you probably had was the occasional NW wave at 9 seconds, but even with the NW swell it may have more commonly 4-6 second period waves. You may have had the swell coming from the wrong direction to even give you much of that NW swell (I dont know your beach, that is for you to figure out from experience)

My suggestion is this:
1. focus on swell direction first - this will tell you whether the swell creates surfable waves at your beach. The more dominant the primary swell (how much bigger than the secondary swell) the cleaner the waves will be
2. swell size then indicates how big those waves may be (noting that they are affected by direction)
3. swell interval tells you how powerful they will be (which obviously also relates to size - 4ft @8 seconds produces a smaller face than 4ft at 18 seconds)
4. wind is a variable and also can change direction and strength quite suddenly; under 10mph/16km/h or 10 knots, usually not much of a factor. Above that and it can improve or reduce your waves depending on wind directions

Wow, that's a great analysis! I agree. The best swell direction for my beach break is described as N, NW, and W. So yes I'd agree with you that the NW swell was responsible

ConcreteVitamin wrote:The best swell direction for my beach break is described as N, NW, and W. So yes I'd agree with you that the NW swell was responsible

So you had a NW primary swell plus a secondary SSW swell on a beach that is best for a N swell. Hence the primary swell probably gives some waves but they are smaller than the surf report - the surf report is 5.6ft for NW, but for a N facing beach the swell has to refract or is blocked by a headland or something, so probably coming through a bit smaller.

The secondary swell is SSW, so probably did added nothing beneficial to the waves; but it may have created some cross swell ie bumpiness in the waves/water. Same for the tertiary swell

Depending on where you surf there will often be 3-5 beaches or breaks (eg a break at the southern end and a break at the northern end); over time you learn which of them work best with which swell direction. So N swell go to beach 1, SW go to beach 2 etc.

The size and period of the swell is important for surfing but wont really affect whether there are waves in the first place (so long as there is some swell, of course). That said, naturally its not quite that simple:

[*]some places can hold really big swells and others cant and become unsurfable;
[*]some places will break far enough out to surf even with small waves and others need swell of a minimum height before the waves can be surfed (note: this is almost always dependent on the depth of the ocean floor, which may mean sandbar or rock or reef or just angle of the floor. Hence tides become important as well....)
[*]some places, even though they may not face the 'right way', work better at certain heights than beaches that face the right way. For example, there is a wide open S facing beach where I surf that gets waves pretty much all the time, even when all the other beaches are flat and despite swell direction. But if there is a S swell over about OH, it just becomes a mess of moving water and rips and, while surfable, is really tiring. In which case, I go to a beach that works best on a SE swell, but is better than the S facing beach in that situation

(note: just a fun fact - one beach I surf at produces rights on a SE swell and lefts on a NE swell. So swell direction not only determines if there are waves, it also changes the direction of the break. And if the swell is more E, it can alternate left and right and close out between every wave, which is tricky... )