It's where you tow in order to get enough speed to launch airs off little waves. Being it is small, the jetski can come from the side or front of the wave to get you into it, not just from the back like in big waves.
Simply put. Towing "IN" means that you are getting whipping over and IN to a big wave, using a PWC from behind. Towing "AT" has usually been reserved for smaller waves and beach breaks, where the PWC comes from inside the flat and slings you from the flats in front of the wave "AT" the wave face. Almost like a skimboarding approach, but with a jet ski assisting you. Towing AT is getting tossed at the face, Towing in is getting tossed over and IN. It enables people to take still shots of very large airs on very small days typically.
Serious Question... Can someone explain to me why long period ground swells=closeouts? Swell period is the time from crest to crest, groundswell is a swell that forms a long way offshore. How does this translate into closeouts?
yea for real the wave is a rolling cylinder>> longer period>> longer diameter of cylinder>> more water in wave>>more bottom contours needed to make it break down the line instead of all at once a proper point and is needed to make long period waves function
groundswells feel the bottom deeper so they square up and come straight at the beach rather than on an angle. makes for long walled up waves on a beach break.
There is no such thing as a closeout. You are just out of position and you aren't surfing fast enough.
That was definitely not a zach619 original. I believe it does have roots with the SHRED. Seldom may be able to shed light on the original poster as he also references these so called "closeouts".
man, the pressure's on...first off, I'd like to second what zach has said as truth. Do not blame the wave, blame the rider. Now, I'll do a little searching, but the closeout epiphany went down in a thread where cep and someone else were debating this...it might've been cep who came out with the revelation, lemme get some work done and I'll dig around. In the meantime, as far as closeouts: [video=youtube;fQuwBo7WQgc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQuwBo7WQgc[/video]
During 15-18 second swells it's not uncommon for sets to come through that stretches 3-4 blocks long in NJ. No matter what position you are in, it's unsurfable. The recent Marie swell in SoCal was even walled and unsurfable in most beach break locations. Closeouts absolutely exist in actual reality
stinkbug that's when you need to go from quad/squash to thruster/pintail...and for me that's when I go from bat to crescent.
Okay ... there are two things that are important here. Wave mechanics and the sea floor. First, lets talk wave mechanics. You are right that period denotes the time from crest to crest. Think of it as the frequency of the wave, and it makes more sense. Remember sin waves from math? Or, think of the high tide diagrams- any diagram of a wave in profile. Look at this. Think of these as going from left to right. Now, when we have short period swell, you are seeing a high frequency wave like above... a crest every four seconds. When you have a longer period swell, you are seeing a lower frequency wave, as illustrated. Just look at the shapes of the two above; a shorter period creates smaller waves at a higher frequency. A longer period creates larger, fatter waves, at a lower frequency. Long period waves are just 'fatter'; and they contain more energy (this is a result of sustained winds over a larger fetch but we can talk about that later). When waves come to shore, it's like our diagram, moving from left to right, with right being the shore. The wave gets squished, it's energy is condensed, and it 'jacks up', right? A longer period wave will be fatter, and as a result, it will jack up higher when condensing energy at shore. Look at the diagram below and think about it- a longer period, fatter wave jacks up higher, like the steep one pictured here. Now, the graduation or slope of the sea floor also affects how the wave jacks up. If it is a very gradual slope, the wave will expend it's energy gradually, as it reaches shore, resulting in a slow-rolling longboard wave. On the other hand, if the sea floor drops off quickly, or is steep, as is the case in most of NJ and NY, the wave will expend it's energy very quickly, resulting in fast breaking, top-to-bottom, steep waves. This works out well with shorter period swells, the 'thinner' waves jack up just enough for a short little peeler off that jetty. But, when a long period 'fatter' wave arrives, all that width jacks up too fast, and with the forward momentum of the wave, it just flops over, resulting in a big closeout. Put briefly, all these things add up to this: long period closeouts are just big shorebreak.
only a few places in NJ I can think of surfing this wind and angle.... da fugs up with the wind report switching every time I check it.
Haha, my girlfriend was actually trying to get me to apply to this the other day. I do need a job. Just after this week of surfing... 34th st., I hope this helps. Come pick me up in the city one day and we'll go east, far east, to a land of no crowds, where closeouts really don't exist ...
