Winds

37.492 mph. Not a thousandth of a mile speed sooner.

 

any seasoned surfer would be able to tell you what happens. Fact is, if you have to ask, its probably outside your ability to handle it.

^barry knows his limits

my cut off is 35.897654349. Ill open the polls shortly

 

For me, the bigger the swell, the more wind it can handle. If it's blowin' 20 and it's only 2', it's not much fun. If it's blowing 20 and it's overhead, it's all good. Here's my "offshore wind" scale for typical surf around here...

0-10: perfect; ideal
10-15: can be a little annoying at the upper end, with spray in the face and all, but def still good and hollow.
15-20: starting to have to fight it; becomes a factor on takoffs, but you just have to make the adjustments
20-25: pretty radical; surf has to be good to handle it
25-30: reaching my limit; more frustrating than fun for me. Doable only if it's near epic caliber surf.
30+: I don't surf in gale force winds.

 

^^^ Sounds about right

 

The harder the offshores, the bigger your turns look!

Anything above 30 has to be a truly epic swell to make it worth while. It's also hard to imagine the swell sticking around for long in those conditions.

 

Aw, come on!! Go Saturday man!! It's a challenge!!!! You can do it!!!

 

This was a couple years ago in CR.

Decent swell, maybe 3' @ 16,17 secs, translation: well OH on sets. All night the wind was wailing. Sending lawn furniture flying.

At dawn the wind was probably a steady 30 knots & gusting to 45+ knot offshores. This is the type of velocity whereby the airborne sand stings the skin. We walked down to the beach with coffee in hand just to scope conditions out.

Three 'surfers' walked by us, two guys & a gal. The fourth dude sat on the driftwood next to us. He was still drunk, and drinking screwdrivers from a Mason jar. Says they're from Alaska & have been up all night partying. His three buds paddle out. The gal looks shaky. Ask Mason jar how much she's surfed, he laughs & says it's her first time on a surfbort.

They more get blown out than paddle out. In the process, they take a couple very big growlers on the head. Somehow they get out the back. And then ... they just keep on going & going, like in the direction of Australia. After a short while all we could see, way the heck out there, was little splishes & splashes where they were kicking up water with their ever-more-feeble attempts to paddle in.

I say to Mason jar, hey, you might want to go get a boat. He says where would I get a boat & do you guys want to come with me? Uh, next town over, and no. He wanders off.

By now there's 25-30 people on the beach, everyone watching the three people going further & further out. I'd say at least 1/2 mile out, maybe more. After about another 35 mins, here comes a panga bouncing around the point & towards the three drifting. Mason jar came through, they picked up the people & their borts & retreated back around the point.

The downside to high winds & drinking all night from Mason jars, then going 'surfing.'

 

Have any of you suddenly arrived at the coast of western Africa??

 

I learned from my foreman at work hes in his 60s and said hes been surfing since he was 5.he said that the more wind the better,the wind holds the face up and doesn't let it close out.like if its 6ft with 3mph west winds(offshore for me) its just going to keep closing out.but 20mph and itll hold wide open and be nice and hollow and drain down the bar.

he did tell me of one story ,I think it was the blizzard of 69,idk I wasn't alive I'm not in my 50s lol,he said it took him like 1 1/2 hours to get in the wind was blowing so hard.id be scared shytless if I was in his booties

 

I'm sipping and laughing bro! I can picture it.

 

My buddy Smitty (RIP) told me accurately, if it's real big and kinda onshore but not howling, it helps you get in. It gives you a little push on the takeoff, and it's too big for the faces to get marred. And it adds power.

Offshores in big surf you better paddle half way down.

I went out yesterday it was just after a passing cold front. Early am tornadoes. SW wind blasting 40 plus. South swell maybe shoulder high on sets but barely breaking. I set my wife up at the greenmarket. It was a 4 concrete block day, to anchor the tent. Then went to my spot with a fish and a longboard, and like a dummy decided on the longboard. Winds subsided to 20 plus SW with some gusts, blowing it back on the sets, so I figured the longboard would get me in.

Luckily my buddy was manning the tower, and gave me a ride on his buggy south to the jetty. I could not walk the LB against the wind. So I got one nice head high right and decided to drift back,and got a couple weird bouncy mushy drop and stops. Then I got greedy and drifted past the tower,and had to walk the plank back down the beach against the wind, getting sandblasted, and hugging the dune to avoid the worst of it.

My buddy Doug, the only other moron out, was smart and took his hyptocrypto down, he could walk against the wind, but he got sandblasted too.