Thursday Morning

Swell info is almost always on point in the winter. Summertime is a much harder season to predict and the admin has been talking about how much work he is putting into it for quite some time.

 

Anyone use surf-forecast.com? I use that and SwellInfo. SI always seems optimistic to me which helps in the end because it gets you out there and you'll make the most of being out there with positive thinking. MSW says flat all the time for my breaks it lists and that's never the case. It doesn't list several of my area breaks. Surf line seems to be very conservative always and they have next to none of my breaks.

I also use the antique barometer my grandmother gave me when I moved to the coast as well as watching wind direction/speed, warm/cold fronts, and learning as much as I can about bathymetry and ocean hydrodynamics.

 

In summertime, the the weather systems that cause waves are smaller and shorter-lasting than in other seasons. Like for example in Summer I'll follow a Low through the Midwest and try to predict when in the next 2 days will be the best 2-4 hour window. If I'm right, I score -- usually without too much in the way of non-local crowds either -- since most surfers under 35 seem to be wholly reliant on free websites to try to predict swells. In Fall for example, its a different story, with some tropical system coming up the coast thats been tracked since the coast of Africa, the window for waves is much wider, like 1-3 days instead of 2-4 hrs, so its just so much easier for you and the rest of the sheep herd to stumble across decent waves.

 

Remember calling the local surf shop for the surf report? Remember when those jerks did the worse and got an answering machine for the surf report and never updated throughout the day....

And I don't think I'm that old

Also remember... home phones?

 

Those were the Shiz. You could leave em at home when you went out with your brahs and babes and not have to be burdened by overstuffed pockets.

Anyone see those old-school handsets with cords that you plug into your cell and pimp in throwback fashion? They solid. And only bout 30 bones.

 

Hear ya.
5 days out it's always green, SI kidz. Live & learn. Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose...

 

Starchy says we don't have this "freedom" thing. Is freedom like foosball? Cuz momma says that's the devil.

 

I look at it along with the other sources (forecasts, local reports, web cams, and newspaper), but surf-forecast is often significantly off the mark for my area (Dam Neck/VA Beach). I mean real outlier readings compared to the others. For wave and swell data, I think it uses buoy readings which are quite a distance offshore and dont usually reflect how the waves are breaking at the beach.
But there have been a number of times when the forecasts and even the reports say it's flat and I've actually gone out and found otherwise due to tide and wind conditions. Sometimes, but not often, I've hit it right in a narrow window of opportunity. My job is right by the beach, so I'll often throw the board on the car on the way to work, flat forecast or not. I'm beginning to rely more on what I'm learning from repeated experience at my usual breaks than just going by the online forecasts. But I'm relatively new to this and no expert.

 

HAHA I forget relatives names at family reunions but I still remember both WRV surf report numbers.

They were also good to know in case someone wanted your number...but...well...you...didn't exactly want to see them again I wonder how many Ohio tourist chicas are still waiting for the beep at the end of some VB surfer's answering machine message.

As far as accuracy, I usually figured there were waves whenever the report was late or not updated.

 

Could still remember the two I used to call, not many phone numbers committed to memory these days but those still are...used to get soo pi$$ed when you'd call and get a busy signal!

 

@6 SEC ...last time i saw a swell interval that low the waves didnt tip over

 

For me in NJ it was is the Island Style and Moceans surf report that are burned into my memory. Now that I'm thinking of it I can't remember the moceans number clearly. Anyone remember that number, was something like 570-0557?

 

eastern lines and spellbinders for me 7326816407 7325311028

 

842-4024 who else in NJ has that number seared into their memory? I can remember hanging up and redialing that number 50 times a day to get around a busy signal or to get the update.