How come most of the swells lately are working better the farther south I go? I don't know if its sand bars or the break shapes, but on the last 4-5 swells we've had; it has always been better south. The periods have ranged from 16 to 8 seconds and that hasn't affected things. The coastal portion of Monmouth looks like this from south to north " / " so the north end is more protruding. If you Google earth it, the farther south you go, the more beach there is respectively. Does this mean there is more contact time between the swell and the ocean floor in the south? Does it matter which direction the swell is heading?
Hard angled south swells have further to wrap to hit northern mon co, so they loose a little steam. On a swell that has some north in it, it can be bigger in northern mon co than south. On southerly "groundswells"... swells with periods longer than 10 sec and from the South to SE, like with a lot of the hurricane swells we've been getting... the canyon can suck a lot of the swell in, so it misses northern mon co, while southern parts of the county get the swell.
So then I'm guessing, most of the time the south is better. It doesn't seem like we get much swell around here from the N/NE. I also noticed the water gets cleaner the farther south I move, but that's another thread.
almost always bigger by at least a couple of feet (and better shaped waves) south of Monmouth Cty, always been like that as long as I can remember (25 yrs) one big exception is before & after Nor'Easters, the best time of year to be a MB local - endless shoulder-head high freight-trains, except, of course, its March
i got a report from ocean county today, and it sounded like it was definitely better up here (lb). south swells in our area are great, it's just everything else that doesn't always line up as well as we'd like
Actually, it doesn't go " / " south to north. It goes " / " until it hits Loch Arbour then it bends and faces more east. So, like stated before the swell angle makes the difference.
IMO, it continues jutting out east in the " / " line the whole way (even if its slight)... http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=deal+nj&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=37.052328,56.513672&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Deal,+Monmouth,+New+Jersey&ll=40.236557,-74.000473&spn=0.139692,0.220757&t=h&z=12
also, it seems like the sandbars work better down there - I'm talking like Belmar/Spring Lake as compared to Long Branch/MB.
i thought you were talking about long branch vs like lavalette.. i agree, it's always a little bigger and better formed there for some reason. could have something to do with the beach? just comparing the two, on noticeable difference is that there is much more beach in southern moco than longbranch.
yeah in general I am comparing Sandy Hook down to LA to Belmar down to IBSP, but specifically for the sandbars that was the comparison. Sand on the beach is different everywhere which does affect the surf obviously but not so distinct as Monmouth vs South. Hope that makes sense! You have beaches in North Sandy Hook that are .5 mile wide, whereas in Deal there is no beach. Spring Lake has a huge beach, and Bay Head has nothing.
It is not the size of the beach...the size of a wave and how it breaks depend on a number factors. The geography and surrounding areas are a big part of swell travel to breaks. Swell near sandy hook and rockaway are generally smaller than swells near ocean city or mauntauk, the more exposed beaches. There is less of a chance that thsoe places will get smacked, on average. Contrarily, kind of like how OBX gets rocked all the time. Thats why, on average, south of monmouth county, the swell is generally bigger. then there is also canyons and continental shelfs as the wave its coming closer to shore to account for then as a wave gets closer its all about the sand bar and jetty if thats an option. local tide position/direction is factor too. and we also need favorable winds. Whose driving for sick waves friday?? I am I am
The point about canyons makes total sense. Northern Monmouth is closer to the Hudson Canyon than the rest of the NJ coast. BTW, today kicked ass even up here.
Yep... Every beach has it's own nuances. Getting the goods boils down to local knowledge. No surf reports, online predictions, cams, computer models, etc. can replace it. Being on the beach daily, even when it's flat (fishing, running the dog, jogging...) fills in the gaps where even the most sophisticated wave models miss. Shifting sandbars, changing beach profiles, storm damage... all are variables that are not factored in on the models. Period...
sounds like there is a more gradual continental shelf on the northern half of jersey most of the time. All year long, as the currents change, swells hit and seasons change, there are probably more spots on the southern half that get deeper faster, resulting in some more favorable surfing waves. I think that bottom contours right by shore are much more important than exact swell angles and distance of the swell. Swells of all kinds can usually travel very long distances, mostly increasing their energies, so even windswell 30 miles up the coast is probably just as strong, but one break is better than the other based on the beaches and sand bars. My two cents. Cause it sounds like the guys who responded that lived there a while agree that this is the norm over decades. Its like, VB is angled to take most NE swells just the same as northern OBX, but that shelf off vb is what does the damage to the swell.
