Ok maybe im not the only one whos thought of this? So what would the best theoretical surf spot for certain surf conditions. Lets say we have a spot that has a great swell window. But is plagued by onshore winds. What kind of jetty shapes or artificial reef setups would be best to enhance a surf spot. What kind of crazy technology could be implemented to a break to enhance it? Could you put giant turbines on the beach to always push "offshore" winds? Or a giant 40ft wall to block side shore winds? *insert joke about 23ft waves here*
I'll try sinking my neighbors honda del slow at my local break. Any improvement in surf conditions would be an added plus to never seeing or hearing that thing again. Will report back...
I used to be a geology major, and always used to think of where the best wave was ever on the planet. You know that somewhere in the geological past there has been a setup that was just mind bogglingly good. There have probably been barrels so long, they make superbank and skeleton bay look like tiddlywinks.
A point break that breaks equally well on the right side as the left side and is small enough to walk across when you get tired of going one direction. I know there was that one in california then they built a harbor (they talk about it in One California Day).
Boner I'm with you, could you imagine back during Pangea or when the dinosaurs were around or when the oceans were forming?! Must have been some insanely massive perfect waves. Probably thousands of feet high! How bout when the Meteors hit and caused mass extinction? Must have been some good swells from that!
first off,let me explain why the eastcoast sucks and theres nothing we can do to enhance the breaks,but the army core of engineers can ruin surfbreaks.thats the logic here on the eastside.we got the continental shelf which slows the waves down and decreases its power.next,we only have beachbreaks,sandy bottoms like spongebob.theres a few reefs like montauk that look epic,and a few north of that in ri and mass. next look at the wind flows.cali and mex is mostly offshore day after day when the ec is onshore.wrong positioning.france,spain,portugal all across the atlantic with the same setups minus the continental shelf.since our wind is onshore,the same wind there is offshore.they dont do replinishment there so the sandbars live and thrive. last lets look at the best surf spots.the best surf spots are located in the most dangerous places on earth,and thats why they are so good,because we dont have the government trying to protect million dollar condos on the shore.mexico and all of central and s.america are bountiful of swells and winds.points,reefs,sand,etc..africa,another place where u can score the best waves of ur life but might get kidnapped by african rebels.indonesia,never been there but the waves are great year round,and its hot and humid,full of beggars and peasants trying to rob u gringos blind. here in northern nj,i have to wait for swells to surf.its not like indo where theres no swell,but theres offshore winds and u can surf perfect little 3-4footers all day long.if i could surf perfect waves day after day for a month straight,i could die happy.we only get a few good days a year,some years we get nothing.i dont consider 3 ft windchop windswell anything epic.i have a video on my digi cam from this past winter,if i can figure out how to upload it to the internet,youll see jersey doing its best impression of jbay.some of u might not believe,others were probably out that day and know exactly what im talking about.perfect wave after wave breaking perfectly down the line without nobody out.the land of rights.i got a new 4/3 this year and cant wait to see how long i can push it without a hood,gloves,and booties.
cep I surfed for NJ for 20 years and you are right on about some things, but Ocean and Monmouth county have the Hudson canyon aimed right at, so there a lil deepwater, nothing major, but better than FL and the bars at IBSP are never adulterated, and wind in Cali def isnt predominantly offshore whoever said a barrel so long it makes skeleton bay look like tiddliwinks is right on, but lets make the water 78 degrees and remove the sea lion rookery they estimate that (Low end)50,000 sea lions at (low end) 300 lbs a piece so that's 15,000,000 pounds of delicious sea lion for Mr. White, standard in eco studies is 1/10-1/1000 of biomass of pred for every pound of prey.....15,000 pounds worth of great white shark, assuming the GW are 1000-2000 pounds thats 8-15 GW supported by that colony...yikes obviously thats a rough model with no count for other types of preds, but its still something to think a bout and DPsup, google images: ricers, you will see
Just finished "Unconventional History Of Surfing". Pretty interesting read but the section on how coastal development dstroyed/created waves was very interesting. Allegedly you could surf from out past diamond head into honolulu harbor for 7 miles prior to the development of wakiki
Ya I bet back in the days of the "Mayflower" the pilgrims probably stumbled upon some sweet untapped breaks up north! Back then our "free country" couldn't shut down all the parks either. Course you didn't have to pay Uncle Sam to surf back then either!
It's all about bathymetry. Would love to see surfrider (or others) pushing solutions such as The Biorock as an alternative to dredging or building seawalls. http://www.biorock.org/
I call it the parade wave. - Arm bent at a 90 degree angle with the hand up - Elbow remains still - Hand is slightly cupped - Fingers tightly together - Hand is slowly twisted back and forth about the wrist - Chin slightly up - Confident half-smile - Generally performed by a female That's a perfect wave.
This isn't really on-topic but did you know average wave height has increased by 25% since 1980? That's pretty significant. Plus, wave steepness is also increasing.
