Swell

Papergirl 1

Hi guys,

I'm a newbie surfer and booked 3 days of surf lessons in Enniscrone 3 weeks ago. When I go up there it ended up that I only got to do 1 day's lesson because there was no waves AT ALL for the following 2 days!!

I've decided to head up again in 2 weeks time, and I'm just wondering what are the chances of that happening again? Does the fact that there was a full moon have any effect on swell......or is that a really stupid question? Does the weather have any effect?!

Cheers for any replies!

Enygma

It's still too far away to tell at this stage. You can only get an accurate swell forecast for 3-5 days and even then conditions can change overnight quite often.

The biggest effect the moon will have will be on the height of the tides, although I have read about one surfer using the moon to predict surf but he was the only person I've heard of doing that.

September is usually the best month for surf in Ireland so you'd be unlucky not to get any waves, although it looks like we'll be getting off to a slow start this year

Check magicseaweed.com before you head off or ring the guys in the surf school, they should know a few days before hand.

brav

Hi quick question(stupid/newbie q)

Does a 5ft swell mean 5ft wave?

Just looking at the cork area for this weekend
http://magicseaweed.com/Cork-Area-Surf-Report/54/

A 2ft swell on saturday, is this flat as a pancake or does it depend on the wind?
Small waves won't bother me as I am a beginner and still learning to read these charts.

cornbb

I usually use windguru.com and find that the swell heights are greatly exaggerated. This may be because the swells are measured by buoys way out at sea, not on the shore.

A 1m swell will translate to barely a ripple. A 1.5m swell will translate to 6 inch/1 foot waves. A 2m swell will provide ok beginner waves.

Then again thats my own very loose interpretation of it. Its not an exact science by any means.

Gone West

Most of these swell charts generally show the average height of the largest 1/3 of the swells. Significant Wave Height is what we call it.

Due to them being off shore, the swells "wrapping" around headlands, etc and the manner in which they rapidly lose some of their height, generally speaking the average size of a wave on a beach is about a third of the size of the swell.
Height and push/pull of tides, and also winds will affect the profiles of the waves but roughly speaking its 1/3.
If you pick an exposed beach to that particular swell, get there with the right tidal and wind conditions it is possible to find breaking waves roughly the same height as the swells. I've surfed 8 foot breaking waves with the swell charts reading 7-10 foot, as one example.

Then again, it is very hard to tell the wave height when youre out there. They look bigger from lying on the board and when you're on the wave, I find I have little concept of how big it is , unless its less than over my head in size.
Overhead would be about 4 foot, since I would be standing in a crouch on the board.

Hope this helps!

Enygma

It's not only the swell height you have to take into account. Swell direction and period have a huge impact on the surf on the beach also.

If a beach faces West and you get a 7 or 8ft westerly swell with a good period of say 12 or 13 seconds you should get head high waves. With a lower period the waves will be sloppier and usually smaller. The extra couple of seconds on the period alone can be the difference between surfing slop and surfing really nice waves!

I guess 1/3 sounds about right for most spots most of the time. Other spots will work well in very little swell and some spots need a massive swell to get going.

It probably takes just as long to learn to read the charts as it does to learn to surf well. That's part of the fun though, getting to know different spots and their characteristics.

Keeping an eye on the period and direction make all the difference in the summer when you're only getting small swells. In the winter a lot of the time it's a matter of finding somewhere sheltered enough for a clean wave!

brav, there won't be anything at all in garrettstown this weekend, or in the foreseaable future unfortunately. Hopefully we'll get at least one good hurricane swell in Sept though!

Gone West

yeah totally I remember Sep'05 we had 30 MPH SW wind, 25 foot NW swells and 15 second periods, and even beaches that point east-north-east on the north west coast (like Mullaghmore etc) will be too big and dangerous

Papergirl 1

Thanks for all the replies guys!

DAVE_K

cornbb and enygma hit it on the head there.

I use windguru - if you want to see how it works get out your map and take a look at Achill - Keel bay

For surfable waves you need

a) Swell coming from the right direction
b) Enough swell to create waves big enough to surf
c) Wind that will shape these waves

Go to windguru.com - type in keel and look at the wind direction, wave(m) and wave direction rows

Keel faces South West - so to get waves/swell hitting keel beach you'll need either a Southerly, South Westerly or Westerly Swell - i.e. the arrows need to coming FROM the south, south west or west.....anything else and either Ireland or Achill will block the swell.

Next having waves is not enough - you want surfable waves which will involve enough swell. As stated about anything in the wave(m) row that's less than a 2 (+/- .2 depending on the beach) is not really worth the drive.

Lastly you'll need to right wind direction - offshore (blowing towards the sea) is good - onshore (blowing from the sea) is bad. So for Keel you'll need wind blowing FROM either the north, north east or east. The north east being ideal and north or east being the next best thing. If the wind is blowing the same direction as the swell - forget about.

A lot of people use magicseaweed - i don't rate it myself - windguru is always spot on - the only time it hasn't worked for me is when I chanced a wave (m)height less than 2 hoping for waves, I'd get to the beach, all the conditions would be right but the waves would be just too small to surf.

brav

Thanks!

local surfer

Papergirl 1 wrote:

Thanks for all the replies guys!

Although it it can never be certain, that is normally a very consisten time of year. You can check previous years to get an idea of the seasonal averages, this is available on magicseawees.com.

Good luck.

longboardirelan

Enniscrone in September SHOULD be a banker but tis pretty flat at the moment.