Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

Best Times to Surf?

Options
  • 09-10-2008 9:04pm
    #1
    Shane_O
    Closed Accounts Posts: 96 ✭✭


    What if any are the best times to surf? Ive read before low tide and was down in garretsown yesterday evening just before low tide and the place was packed so i assume this is a good time,waves were good aswell.Just beginning,so just trying to get to know the ins and outs.
    What do i look for in weather,winds,tides etc??
    Thanks in advance for any info:pac:


Comments

  • Options
    #2
    Macanri
    Registered Users Posts: 1,793 ✭✭✭Macanri


    Shane_O wrote: »
    What if any are the best times to surf? Ive read before low tide and was down in garretsown yesterday evening just before low tide and the place was packed so i assume this is a good time,waves were good aswell.Just beginning,so just trying to get to know the ins and outs.
    What do i look for in weather,winds,tides etc??
    Thanks in advance for any info:pac:

    Where do you start?
    In relation to tides - different breaks work well on different tides so it's a matter of checking out some sites like beachwizard.com or asking some local surfers.

    Wind - When you have a wave at a break an onshore wind will knock the head of a formed wave, the end result been alot of white water. Whereas an Offshore wind will hold up the face of the wave and prevent it from breaking soon. This is what you want. Some breaks work well on a cross shore wind.

    Swell - generally the bigger the swell the bigger the wave.

    Wave period - the longer the period (its measured in seconds) then the more organised the sets of waves will be.

    For more reading see here http://magicseaweed.com/content/surf-forecasting.php


  • Options
    #3
    Shane_O
    Closed Accounts Posts: 96 ✭✭Shane_O


    :DSound man!


  • Options
    #4
    Crumble Froo
    Registered Users Posts: 8,196 ✭✭✭Crumble Froo


    can depend on the tide as well. just a beginner here myself, but am taking lessons, and at the beach we surf at, the gist of it is that as the tide is going out, the waves get dumpier, thereby giving shorter/less rides, and as well as that, by the time it's a couple of hours until full tide, we kinda run out of beach, and it's all rocks, so that's a bad time to surf at that particular beach (unless you can handle out the back, which my poor paddle-arms aren't quite capable of yet :D).


Advertisement