Parts of the wave

wideangle

Can someone explain the different parts of the wave?

Which parts are used to obtain,speed,air?

Which parts to avoid?

What to look out for in order to catch a wave that is worth catching.

What conditions are best,like wind direction,currents,rips,low tide,high tide.

Maybe it has been done before,no harm in doing it again for new surfers and bodyboarders.:cool:

promethius

Hey wideangle. Yours questions are kind of strange i suspect you're a beginner but i will do my best to answer them.

Can someone explain the different parts of the wave?

When a wave is breaking cleanly you basically have the breaking section (whitewater) then the shoulder/peak (first clean part of the wave) then the rest of the wave which normally gets smaller as you move away from the peak. Bear in mind that the peak is of course moving as the wave moves towards the shore.

Which parts are used to obtain,speed,air?

Most surfing manouvers are linked to building up speed. This is done by getting into the peak and going up high on the wave, you then turn and drop down, like going down a hill which builds up speed. You can then make a turn or get some air based on that speed.

Which parts to avoid?

That depends. If you're a beginner the whitewater will allow you to catch waves easily and practice your pop-up (standing up). If you're intermediate or up you don't want to be anywhere near the white water. It doesn't allow smooth surfing and doesn't have enough power to hold up a small thurster board in particular. A beginner doesn't worry about this as they have something bigger with better float.

What to look out for in order to catch a wave that is worth catching.

This depends on your ability, your board and how many you're sharing the break with. Watch what other people are paddling for and how they're getting on, are they catching waves or going after uncatchable ones that are a waste of energy.

What conditions are best,like wind direction,currents,rips,low tide,high tide.

Wind is best if slightly offshore (ie blowing out to sea). If slightly onshore it's prob ok but if strong on shore it will be messy and possibly unsurfable.
A light off shore holds up the wave and makes it very nice to surf. No wind is good but doesn't happen often in ireland. In ireland you're looking at a lot of wind and it's mostly the crappy onshore stuff but occasionally it does die or go off shore. California for example is blessed by having a wind that blows off shore pretty much every morning due to the heating and cooling of a massive land mass.

Tide is generally best at low tide but not the case for all breaks.
High tide tends to kill the wave as the water returning from shore hits the swell and cancels out a lot of its energy.

A rip can be very helpful but seeing as you're starting out be careful about what you doing and ask a local. A rip can bring you out very quickly avoiding a long and tiring paddle out. If you get stuck in one stay cool and paddle at right angles to the direction it's taking you in and you'll be quickly out of it.

I'm a surfer but a lot of this applies to body boarding too.

Maybe it has been done before,no harm in doing it again for new surfers and bodyboarders.

cue

Good questions. Good post Promethius. Very useful. I was told by an instructor to watch the sets coming in. If the horizontal line of the wave is dead straight, it will close off. A good wave will be slightly higher one side than the other and this will give a wave which peels off in one direction. The highest point will be the peak and this is where you want to be positioned for take off. The direction it will go depends on the longest slope. When standing on the beach watching it is possible to see where the wave peaks and closes and rises again before it actually happens. Using this wave reading skill when lying on a bobbing board looking backwards at the in coming wave is a different kettle of fish .

wideangle

Lol my questions are strange:Dthats me allright the strange one;)

Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions,Promethius.

I am not a complete beginner but I usually bodyboard on me own so have no one to ask:o

What exactly is the pit of the wave,is it where two waves meet?

wideangle

cue wrote: »

I was told by an instructor to watch the sets coming in. If the horizontal line of the wave is dead straight, it will close off. A good wave will be slightly higher one side than the other and this will give a wave which peels off in one direction. The highest point will be the peak and this is where you want to be positioned for take off. The direction it will go depends on the longest slope. When standing on the beach watching it is possible to see where the wave peaks and closes and rises again before it actually happens. Using this wave reading skill when lying on a bobbing board looking backwards at the in coming wave is a different kettle of fish .

Thanks Cue for the above tips will try them out at the weekend.:cool:

promethius

You’re showing an appetite to learn which is a good thing.
Pit is right in front of the breaking crest, ie towards the shore in front of it. If you get in there you loose speed and can get wiped out pretty easily as it’s going to be very choppy. If you are serious about getting to know what waves to take it’s important to just sit there and watch other people doing it, see what kind of waves they’re catching and how much paddling effort they’re putting in. If no one in the line up is catching anything, you know it’s going to be difficult or you need a longer board.

Good points from Cue also. You don’t want to be getting into sets where it’s “walled up” ie the waves jack up and dump violently, this is where there’s a high risk of getting injured if your take off is slow. Don’t forget to look out for other surfers when you’re popping up but you probably know that already. Best way is to spot someone in the water who’s better than you and try to learn from what they’re doing.

gerk86

Thought id add my own questions here instead of making a new topic.

i have a big 7'2 board. Im at the stage where im catching most waves and standing etc. What im trying to do at the mo is turn and ride along the wave. Im finding it impossibe and lose most of my momentum when i do try.

any tips?

cue

How are you finding it impossible? What exactly is happening? Losing momentum is something that can happen if you shoot straight off towards the shore in front of the wave. Is that what is happening? If so, try angling yourself and your board 45 degrees just before you pop up. You got to do it quick or the wave will flip the board over though. Thats what I do.

promethius

Thought id add my own questions here instead of making a new topic.

i have a big 7'2 board. Im at the stage where im catching most waves and standing etc. What im trying to do at the mo is turn and ride along the wave. Im finding it impossibe and lose most of my momentum when i do try.

any tips?

Gerk86, 7”2’ is not actually that big but that aside.
This may be an issue of where your body weight is on the board while you try to turn.
If you want to turn, you put extra weight over the fins area, this loosens the front of the board and allows you to turn it.
If you have your weight too far forward and try to turn it the wave will pass under you as I think you’ve been describing or turn slowly.

That’s turning but how about once you’re riding down the clean face of the wave?
If you find yourself slowing down once riding the wave you should shift your weight slightly forward and off the fins.
With a long-board you can even “walk” down the board (you will see long-boarders do it all the time) to maintain speed as the wave loses power.
On a thruster or short board you can “pump” it. This means basically shifting your weight up and down, both techniques work.

Cue makes a very good point regarding the take off. If you start at an angle it does two things.
First is that it makes the board less sloped on the wave meaning it’s easier to pop up and less scary especially when it’s breaking fast.
The second thing it does is gets your board pointed in the correct direction so less of a turn is required.
He/she is also correct about shooting off straight in front of the wave, watch the good surfers, they won’t do this.

This is what I do on my long-board (9”0’), check for other surfers, pick my direction and angle about 30 deg to the direction the wave’s moving in paddling strong, even strokes.
My body weight (lying down) is pretty far forward to maximize the chances of catching the wave and my legs are bent up with my feet over my ass to take as much weight forward as possible. Once I feel the glide and have the wave it’s quickly up to my feet and bear in mind I’m quite a ways forward so I quickly feed the board forward with the result that a lot of the front of it is clear of the water. Now with my weight back over the fins the board turns pretty easily and I’m riding down the face of the wave and happy days.

For my short-board (6”6’) it’s a little different. Angle it up the same at about 30 deg, weight as far forward as experience tells me I can go without nose-diving (every board and rider are different) then quickly pop up. Once up there is no changing of feet position as there’s a lot less board which is a lot more sensitive to changes in weight. Same idea though, get it turned with weight over the fins then lean forward.

topper75

promethius wrote: »

This is what I do on my long-board (9”0’), check for other surfers, pick my direction and angle about 30 deg to the direction the wave’s moving in paddling strong, even strokes.

My body weight (lying down) is pretty far forward to maximize the chances of catching the wave and my legs are bent up with my feet over my ass to take as much weight forward as possible. Once I feel the glide and have the wave it’s quickly up to my feet and bear in mind I’m quite a ways forward so I quickly feed the board forward with the result that a lot of the front of it is clear of the water. Now with my weight back over the fins the board turns pretty easily and I’m riding down the face of the wave and happy days.

This sounds good and close enough to what I am doing already. Don't you pearl a lot though?

promethius

Topper, the key to not pearling is timing, once you get the glide and have the wave get your legs down, back arched and standing quickly. This of course takes a lot of practice and finding the "sweet point" on your board.
Hesitation means you're going to pearl.
I rarely pearl now thankfully.

topper75

Thanks.

For me though, the sweet spot seems to change with the type of wave. Maybe need a quicker popup. It's hardly like its a chore to get out and experiment!:)

promethius

Thanks.
For me though, the sweet spot seems to change with the type of wave. Maybe need a quicker popup. It's hardly like its a chore to get out and experiment!

You’re right, some waves are steeper than others meaning your centre of gravity needs to be at a different point.
As you say yourself, the best way to find out is to make a few mistakes, this will give you a good idea of the limits of how far forward you can go on the board also.
Getting up quicker definitely helps too.

Gone West

wideangle wrote: »

What conditions are best,like wind direction,currents,rips,low tide,high tide.

Complex effects of wind and the moons gravity pulling water towards it, coupled with the earths rotation causes a hundred different things to happen to the oceans. Heres a quick n dirty guide to immediate effect on breaking waves.

Normally, a spring low tide, on the push, with light to moderate stable offshore wind, with a long wave period is ideal if you're looking for barreling waves.
It does depend on the individual reef + wave direction and wave size too though.

Tides are more powerful around the times that they peak high/low.
Generally, low tide will be better but that is not valid for every break.
Some of the popular waves in Ireland are high tide only, for example.
The "bigger" the tides, the more water moves around, the more powerful they will affect the waves.

Tides pushing in and pulling out will do different things to the waves.
Often, tides on the pull will kill smaller swells rolling in and dampen the waves, although they will tend to make larger waves curl a little better.
Tides on the push will usually add more "boof" to a breaking wave and make it a little better.

Wind is needed to clean up the waves and to hold the vertical and almost vertical face of them for a bit longer than gravity would like. As such, it is only the most powerful part of the wave (the breaking lip at the top) which will fall over at any one moment. This will usually happen fairly quickly and dramatically with an offshore wind and a good reason for the wave to break. This contrasts with the slower peeling crumbly waves that will slowly break, with a sliding motion rather than a crashing one.
In contrast, an onshore wind (one blowing from the sea towards the shore) will often blow the tops off waves and cause them to partially break and then reform later. This is the choppy, messy sort of wave that is not much use to surfers.

Hope that helps.