So i have been surfing since july this year and i was wondering if this Sunday is gonna be to intense for me, I can stand up on small breaking wave, I have been out in 2-4 ft waves with choppy conditions, but sunday says 2-3 clean/fair will this be to intense for me? I am still learning how to duck dive so i just want to know if its hard getting out there b/c when it was choppy it took forever to get out(yes im a noob) reason im asking is b/c i live like an hour away don't really want to drive that far to get owned lol, are there any beaches that will be good? i want to go where there is people such as belmar/spring lake. thank you for all your help/advise guys.
Deffinitly going to be a little too much for you.. But possibly way too much. Depends on what you wanna believe. 2-4ft on swellinfo, or 4-6 feet on surfline.. Im hoping for the later, but you shouldn't be.
4-6 feet? surfline and swellinfo say 3-4 for belmar/Springlake but hey i guess its not exactly accurate
surfed spring lake every day since wednesday. sets are overhead, and the waves are dumping a lot on the inside bar. if you aren't experienced in head high long period surf, and can't duck dive a heavier wave, stay on the beach. and the surfline forecasts have been much more accurate. just surfed the inlet and it was overhead on the sets. tomorrow should be unreal with the offshores and incoming tide. and thank you for thinking about this instead of just paddling out, potentially harming yourself, and getting in everyone else's way. its too bad all of the other beginners don't think like this...
haha yeah i dont want to die or get in anyones way lol heres another question i know this swell is from leslie but are the waves usually this big from sept-oct? as a beginner should i Be going out in sept/oct?
We tend to get a lot of swell in these months. But with most swells, there will be larger days, with some clean 2-3 foot days mixed in, usually in the begining or tail end of the multi day swell. Other swells will just bring smaller waves. There was barely any swell this summer. There will hopefully be more swell this fall. But that doesn't mean it will necessarily be big swell
I'm a bodyboarder the first day I went out it was 3-5 ft at Rockaway beach NY back in 2010. I would say go out and try to surf, its the only way you'll get better also we live on the East Coast not sure how soon we're gonna get something like this again. Just go for it if you cant make it out come in take a break and try again
I myself am starting out this year, and so-far during the swell from Leslie I've found that the cleaner days have been far easier to surf than the choppier ones. For instance, this past Tuesday we had choppy 3-5ft+, and when those head-high sets came though, it was really, really rough for me (I had to simply dive on them). I can't see those big waves coming out of the chop. Wednesday was 4-6ft., but glassy clean, and it was so easy getting out and catching waves. You can easily see them coming, and you just pick the ones you want. Plus when you wipe-out, there aren't so many surprises, where-as in the choppy conditions, you can end up with secondary short-period swells generated by the local winds that will throw you off when you re-surface after a hard landing. In other words instead of surfacing with a nice clean swath of water in front of you to catch a breath, you could end up getting hit by another wave, etc., etc. Plus it's crazy-hard to get out if you aren't experienced enough to find rips, deep areas, etc. With the clean conditions, you can easily find the lulls in the swell and sprint out past the break. In general, cleaner days are going to be more predictable, and IMHO, easier to surf. The main question would be whether you can catch the bigger waves, or if you're simply going to be wiping out a lot. Frankly, wiping out in head-high conditions isn't too bad, you just have to be ready to hold your breath for a good 5-10 seconds, and be used to somersaulting under-water a couple times. Just this morning I peal-dived on a 5ft. wave, and when I recovered, I was completely disoriented ... I opened my eyes thinking I would be looking at the shore-line, and instead was looking straight out to sea and the next wave bearing down on me. I just dived on the next incoming wave, and everything was fine. Granted, if it was over-head conditions, I would be singing a different tune right now, but at shoulder-to-head-high, the wipe-outs can be rough, but doable, and they are great opportunities to learn and get good timing on bigger waves. Surfing conditions that are a little more than you can handle isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's how you grow. Thing issue is you don't want to grow too fast; you want to grow just enough to increase you abilities, and make you more comfortable in the smaller stuff. So I'd say if you manged to surf in 4-6ft. choppy conditions, then 4-6ft. clean will seem like paradise.
Awesome guys, thank you for all you tips and advice, unfortunately im gonna have to pass tomorrow hopefully next weekend will be nice(work sucks), have fun out there guys.
The whole "when in doubt , don't go out" definitely applies here. Know that there's no shame in knowing and acknowledging your personal limits. I've been surfing for 15 plus years, and I know that when it's 3 ft overhead and draining barrels in Jersey, at my age I don't have the skill set for it, and I will either get worked risking injury or just plain not have a good time. If you look at the ocean, and you're initial reaction is one of trepidation instead of stoke, then skip it and know that the smaller, beginner friendly days by far outnumber the heavy expert only days. Plus, if there's a crowd of guys, and they are all visibly above your own beginner level, skip it as well and find another spot... no one likes a turd in a punchbowl.
