According to Swellinfo this morning at the 6:00am update, it was forecasted to be FLAT on east facing rhode island breaks today. LOL....Try Solid chest high. S/SSW swell 6.2 feet at 9 seconds at station 44097 doesn't = flat. Can the owner of this site explain this to me? Does a slight degree in direction make the difference. Is that what the computer model is miscalculating?
i woke up to way more swell then i expected in jersey today. seems like this pulse was a bit stronger than forecasted everywhere.
haha everyone who checked the forecasts this morning in jerz didnt go out at least around me so i had solid overhead peelers with only one other guy out for a number of hours
Under forecasted down here too. It dropped off quick, but there were some solid chest-high+ sets up until around 9am. And don't complain about it, barely anyone out where I was too. Consider it a gift from Swellinfo--culling the lazy.
Fine line between south and east facing breaks... Check both of them. As you can see the south facing forecast shows plenty of swell - chest high. http://www.swellinfo.com/surf-forecast/newport-rhode-island The swell itself was SSW, so thats why for east facing breaks, its was forecasted to be smaller.
Yeah You're usually so spot on so I was just wondering. Good thing I checked everything out just in case. I think a few degrees in direction makes all the difference. Hard to forecast when it's borderline on the degree of direction.
What spot are you referring to? Rhode Island's coast varies so much, there are a lot of breaks that aren't exactly facing south or east facing. The more east facing the break, most likely it was smaller, unless you were surfing somewhere like Ruggles which sticks out and is exposed completely to the south. So, for the SSW swells, you should keep this in mind... Use the south facing forecast as the gauge for best spots, and consider that the breaks tucked in will be smaller. I was contemplating getting rid of the east facing forecast to remove this specific confusion, but some users said that it really helped them. Maybe its a good idea, or maybe the east facing forecast should allow more SSW energy in...
Gotcha I wasn't at ruggles. I prefer beach break as long as it's not closing out or a groundswell is in the water That of course can pose a challenge sometimes with our limited amount of beach breaks. lol....then it's off to the rocks You're right. If you look at a map, there's nothing truly east facing except for pilgr and the dock They all face ese or se in gansett. Complicated geography to say the least. Even within the same beach you can have a difference. Gansett Town beach being a classic example. North end can be very different than south end in these type of swells I think I've finally got it dialed down.
Where were you? Not the actual break. Just North or South? I'm in Monmouth. I check a few spots this morning and got out for a bit. It was fun, but nothing close to solid overhead.
ding, ding, ding! we have a winner! it pays to remember that this site is a reference, a tool, to be used in making your own judgement calls. it's not a sign flashing, "go surf here!"
Surfed that area (RI) again today as well....solid waist high to chest high sets and that was on the east facing stuff to get protection from that stiff WNW wind. The water was nice and clear...you could see plenty of detail on the boulders that were BARELY below the surface on the smaller waves.
I was south too this morning and had a blast. Even saw a bigger guy paddle out in nothing but trunks.