Boogie Boarding

[Piggity]

california can get oily glass and I think the EC and Gulf as well.

I recall after xmas through January a few years ago that me and my buddy scored something ridiculous like 5-6 weeks of 7 days a week glassy mid afternoon session. The surf didn't drop below headhigh the entire time and we just sat out there alone everyday mid week all giddy and chit. There were some mind blowing sessions we had just he and I sharing this magical little sandbar that was just dropping corduroy lines on us for weeks straight.

I can't take it anymore, I'm going surfing.......

[Ottime]

Bruce Brown is a talker. He likes to make up a lot of shit. All waves (except tsunami) are made from wind. Just a little bit of wind, and you get shorter period, and generally small swell that diminish locally. Stronger, more persistent winds create longer period, and generally larger swells, that travel thousands of miles with much less decay. It act more like a wave moving through the water medium, as opposed as energy moving across the surface of the water (and effected by friction).

Not all waves in CA are groundswell. Not all waves on the east coast of Oz are wind swell. But I bet it was a good flick. You should be able to pick up Endless Summer on netflix as well. Step into Liquid was an okay doc, and should be easy enough to find.

Oh. And the east coast can often be way more oily glass than central CA.

[Piggity]

Sounds like you already know this but wind velocity is one part, duration and fetch are also major contributors

[shera]

Bruce Brown reminds me of Warren Miller, very congenial, amusing. I'll bear in mind not to take him at his word!

Yup, Endless Summer is there, will watch again. Just watched a really good one, Bustin Down the Door, these Ali style smack talkers come from South Africa and Austrailia to the North Shore in the mid 70s. Yes, they can surf and they turned surfing into a moneymaking proposition. But they piss off Da Hui. So much insight in that movie.

Like with all art, when you start doing it for the money, you are stealing its soul. Or your own soul.

I am starting to gain some insight into Hawaii, I think. Trying to be informed about the "apartheid" that exists today. The people are very complex, many facets, with important history. Population decimated from disease, built back through free intermarriage with all races. Land and water use and property issues in the context of a people that didn't have the same vision of "property". Warm and welcoming people with a powerful history of war and fighting also. A culture that was smothered by missionaries and being recreated and reinvented. I could go on, it's an education for sure. But really just an intellectual exercise for me until I go there and live and see with my own eyes. I'm fascinated.

In the meantime, I actually got in the water at Sunny Cove, the warmest spot I could find. Fack that was hard. And I was numb in ten minutes. My focus this summer has been leg strength and cardiovascular fitness, to new levels. My hill climbs are what matter the most right now and I'm grooving on that.

As far as wave mechanics, and how swells are formed over thousands of miles of ocean, I'm not really understanding yet. Could use something "for dummies". I don't even know what fetch is?

edit - Ottime I read your post on swell again about five times. I'm learning, long way to go. You're a good teacher. Thanks.

[Ottime]

Fetch is basically the area over which wind blows. It is two dimension, and the width of a fetch plays a role in how consistent the swell is. A wider fetch decrease lateral swell decay. Think of dropping a stone in a wide pool - waves spread in every direction and diminish. Drop the same stone in a narrow channel, and see how the wavs are forced to move just up/down the channel, and decay slower. Bad analogy, but the wide channel of wind acts similarly, where as a narrow area of wind allows waves to move out of the fetch, and decay, instead of grow.

Also, how a fetch moves is important. If it is pointed at you - good. If it is moving toward you - even better. If it is moving away from you, resulting swell will be much much smaller.

More from the pros here:

btw. swell on the way for this week.

[shera]

Ooooh swell. If you can give me any kind of heads up, I will come and watch some real surfing and bring my camera too. Very exciting. Pleasure Point guy keeps saying that he needs to show me things but there's no swell so maybe he'll come out.

Where's the best place to watch and get pics as close up as possible? My kit lens does not zoom much. The lighthouse where the surf museum is? Haven't been over there in so many years. Would be cool.

Just not Thurs because they're giving out aquarium tix at the library and I need to stand in line for that. Well I could do Thursday night, low light / sunset shots might be pretty. Maybe crash overnight and catch dawn shots as well. Just let me know when!?!

[Piggity]

I wasn't trying to quiz you ottime, I know you know your stuff and I know you only post when you know what your talking about. I was mentioning it so others realize how complex it is. Stormsurf is the goods on info and it's definitely geared to serious surfers thirsty for info, models and maps. I love the site. I also love virtual fetch

[shera]

Ok, I have a plan. Will come to SC on Thurs afternoon. Hang out between Wind and Sea and Rockview with my camera through sunset and again at dawn. Dawn pics might suck due to fog though...

[skideeppow]

I will say that the man in the grey suit is a problem,

Love this reference

[Piggity]

Sea Height: 4.7 ft
Primary Swell Height: 2.8 ft
Primary Swell Period: 24.4 secs
Primary Swell Direction: 205 degrees
Surf Height: 5.4-6.8 ft

24.4 seconds at the Oceanside buoy, wow. Seems like the swell is arriving

http://www.stormsurf.com/cgi-bin/shiro.cgi?a=045

[shera]

I just heard from pleasure point that it's up.

I know this is silly, but I'm excited like it's a powder storm. I can still remember the first time I stood at the base of Loveland ski area and watched everyone flying down the mountain toward me, before I started skiing. It was such a rush...

[Piggity]

One of the coolest things for me about a good size south swell is to look at pictures or watch the video from Teaupoo, Hawaii or Central America as the swell hits those locations and then go surf the very same energy days later at your local break. The energy is shared across the ocean by all that choose to partake, which is pretty cool to think someone might have surfed that same energy down in Indo or the south pacific.


Here is this same swell hitting south shore oahu yesterday. Might not be as good here but still cool to watch what we're about to surf