waves and tides

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waves and tides

Postby greypump » Sat Aug 02, 2008 8:43 am

Do you get better waves if the tide is going in or out?
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Postby essex sucks » Sat Aug 02, 2008 9:15 am

that is a depended on where u are surfing it changes from spot to spot depending on the banks and sand bars and rocks if your surfing reefs and points
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Postby crepuscular » Sat Aug 02, 2008 2:39 pm

usually early morning and late afternoon...
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Postby LucasG » Sat Aug 02, 2008 4:03 pm

From what I understand, usually if the tide is lower the waves are higher and if the tide is high the waves are lower. (At least here)
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Postby isaluteyou » Sat Aug 02, 2008 5:26 pm

dpends on the break. So local knwledge of a break is really really usefull :wink:
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Postby garbarrage » Sat Aug 02, 2008 7:02 pm

can really go either way... one of my fave beaches doesn't even have a wave until mid to high... another very similar beach round the headland works until just before high then doesn't even break for about an hour after high tide...
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Postby drowningbitbybit » Sat Aug 02, 2008 10:00 pm

crepuscular wrote:usually early morning and late afternoon...


As someone who surfs just down the road from you, I know why you're saying that, but thats only true somewhere with a large flattish land mass and a warm temperature.

Wikipedia's page on sea breezes

Somewhere where the land mass is small (eg UK), not that hot (eg northern europe), or mountainous (er, I dunno. Somewhere mountainy) this effect will be much smaller and will usual be secondary to the weather systems.
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Postby drowningbitbybit » Sat Aug 02, 2008 10:07 pm

LucasG wrote:From what I understand, usually if the tide is lower the waves are higher and if the tide is high the waves are lower. (At least here)


Close but no cigar...

At a beach break, waves tend to be steeper and faster as they break over the sandbanks in shallower water. Not necessarily bigger though.


Another variable to throw in is where in the world you are. In the UK, the tidal range is huge (8m+) and so the effect of the tide is huge too (generally a better wave on the incoming tide, and much smaller on the outgoing tide). But here in Oz, for instance, the tidal range is only ~3m. So here the effect is much smaller.
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Postby johnniejr243 » Sat Aug 02, 2008 10:53 pm

LucasG wrote:From what I understand, usually if the tide is lower the waves are higher and if the tide is high the waves are lower. (At least here)


Same in the panhandle, so it seems
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Postby LucasG » Sun Aug 03, 2008 1:01 am

drowningbitbybit wrote:
LucasG wrote:From what I understand, usually if the tide is lower the waves are higher and if the tide is high the waves are lower. (At least here)


Close but no cigar...

At a beach break, waves tend to be steeper and faster as they break over the sandbanks in shallower water. Not necessarily bigger though.


Another variable to throw in is where in the world you are. In the UK, the tidal range is huge (8m+) and so the effect of the tide is huge too (generally a better wave on the incoming tide, and much smaller on the outgoing tide). But here in Oz, for instance, the tidal range is only ~3m. So here the effect is much smaller.


Yeah, it's a beach brake over here.
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Postby joem » Sun Aug 03, 2008 2:02 pm

some beach breaks tend to close out at low
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Postby johnniejr243 » Sun Aug 03, 2008 2:20 pm

joem wrote:some beach breaks tend to close out at low


most waves here come up broken, LOL
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Postby surferdude_scarborough » Sun Aug 03, 2008 5:34 pm

just to throw a spanner in the works, the beach break we surfed in France got gnarly and hollow at hight tide not low.
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Postby joem » Sun Aug 03, 2008 5:50 pm

yep tynemouth has some of its best banks at high
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Postby pkbum » Sun Aug 03, 2008 10:59 pm

LucasG wrote:From what I understand, usually if the tide is lower the waves are higher and if the tide is high the waves are lower. (At least here)


nope, the beach break in newport doesn't work like that. It seems like the jetty is making it big in big tide
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Postby crepuscular » Mon Aug 04, 2008 11:27 am

ok then... probably best to ask the local surfers ;)
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