Best ocean bottom for groundswell

Belmar, NJ... best conditions

 

bro, why would you ask such a question. Your location is mase brah. Best toobs on the east coast, never crowded and year round 80 degree water

 

#justgotobelmar #s@ltlyfe #****inbelmartwice #belmarboardies #belmarkooks #wearebelmar #iownbelmar #offmywavekook

 

Don't forget:

#belmarartificialreef

 

Right, not all beach breaks are bad at handling long period swells, but I'd say the majority of beach breaks will close out more with the longer period stuff due to the higher refraction.

Pacific Beach in San Francisco - breaks in deep water with gradual slope.
Puerto Escondido - actually is 90% close outs, and very dependent upon sand bar formation on any given day.

Most East Coast beach breaks, will lean towards more high close outs. The higher the angle of the swell to the coast, the better off.

 

Higher as in number of degrees of higher as in closer to due North at 0 degree? Thank you.

 

Exactly. Pacific beach is also a fickle break. . Think about how far out you go at long sandbar beach breaks before you hit neck deep water. In many nj beaches, it's a few feet. That's a sharp drop. Now obviously long sandbars can close out as well. That also has to do with angle of sand/angle of wave direction, which is a different function altogehter.

Blacks...look how far out the wave is breaking!


Average NJ....a few feet from shore. That's why nj GENERALLY does better with shorter period stuff, which is better FOR nj anyway since that makes up 95% of the swells anyway.


These two pics basically show why blacks will handle a long period swell WAY better on average than your average nj break. A longer less steep sandbar that won't be overpowered by a ground swell. The longer period stuff can start breaking in much deeper water and will feel the bottom of the sand earlier therefore giving it time to break in pieces, rather than just exploding on a 15 block close out when it suddenly hits a sandbar close to shore.

 

Lets say your beach faces due East, which is about 90 degrees (this is the approximate beach facing direction in Delaware, where I live). If the swell is coming from the East, it will tend to close out more, where as if it is coming from and angle, either more from the south or north, then it will tend to break down the line with less close outs.

So, when the period increases, it creates more refraction, so that swells coming from the South or North, will refract as they get into shallower water and as they approach the surf zone, the swells will be coming more from the East direction due to the refraction.

Does that make it clearer? Pictures would make it easier to understand, but I'm not feeling that motivated at the moment...

 

NOT always! Generally yes, but it really depends how the sand is set up. Maybe you've had a couple of south swells that has rearranged the sand and no longer facing due east anymore, but north northerly! Just because the beach faces east, doesn't mean the sandbars are facing that way! I've also found the deep troughs in the sand create the best sandbar. In other words walk across the beach in the ocean perpendicular and you get different depths of sand. This allows the waves to hit the shallow part and break and then deeper part doesn't break so no close out!

 

I agree that angle of sandbars are influential, but in general, in an open beach without structures, the sandbars will be parallel to the beach.

 

On average, yes.

 

Just to be clear, its OCEAN beach, SF. Unless you are talking about Pacifica, where the break would be called Linda Mar beach.

And Ocean Beach has one of the longest stretching sand bars out there. It breaks a long, long way out.

And sand bars are less consistent cause its just sand. Moving sand. Generally you need a good storm to put the sand where it needs to be, then a couple swells to destroy the bars and back to square 1. The most consistent sand bars will be the ones with a solid surface underneath to hold the sand in place, i.e pipeline, and Cape St. Francis from Endless Summer fame.

 

Old subway cars, car tires, and hospital waste makes for the best bottom conditions.

 

Theoretically, if I started to dump old cars, cinder blocks, my office supplies, and other assorted debris at my home break slanting to the right, would I have a gnar gnar belmar esque peeling right hander?

 

Gnar Gnar for sure.

 

I never been that far out before,behind the peak at ob.id be scared for great whites out there.lucky on the ec,waves break fairly close to the sand.im a decent swimmer,wouldnt say great but on those big ob days where the waves break a mile out,theres no way I could swim in without a board.swimming a mile wouldn't be too difficult,but factor in the sets on the head,the currents,id be a goner

 

#Belmarcoral #NobeachbreaksinBelmar

 

surfsolo is my favorite

 

One that is littered with wind turbines!

 

Back to the OP.

Listen to Mr. Swell Info. He knows.

Yes, a reef/point/inlet or any other significant structure will probably be better than the relatively straight sandbars a barrier island type beach usually has.

Alternatively, scout around. Look down the waterline at high and low tides for sections of the beach that jut out a bit. Maybe 50-100yds wide. Keep an eye on that spot the next clean, small swell. Watch how the swell bends around it. If you have 2 miles of straight beach and this one section is different then the bottom contour has a good chance of being different too. Sections of the beach like that often don't have much of a trough, or none at all, between the outer bar and the beach and it refracts the long period swells just different enough to give you a make able wave.

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Also, look for bad rips. There's probably a break in the sandbar. Surf the corners of the bar. Be careful.

TL;DR
If the waves are closing out and there's no structure to shape a long period swell, look for a lump of sand. Surf there.