What Makes Ideal Surfable Waves
48 commentsThere are two main factors that determine how good the surf will be. First, there are the conditions that lead to initial wave formation. These determine the quality and size of the ground swell that will hit the surf spot. The second main factor is the local conditions at the surf spot. These have to be right to ensure the swell can create quality waves. Let's look at both of these factors in turn.
Ideal Wave Formation Conditions
In the "How Waves Are Made" section the factors that go into creating a swell are looked at. Take a read if you want more information - we'll list the main factors from the article here.
There are three main factors that affect the size of a wave (or for our purposes the quality of the swell) in open sea.
- Wind Speed - The greater the wind speed the larger the wave.
- Wind Duration -The longer the wind blows the larger the wave.
- Fetch - The greater the area the wind affects the larger the wave.
Basically we are talking about a storm. Ok, a big storm. We are talking ONIONS. "So what's an Onion?" you cry. (Just like that. Onions are making you cry!) Is this a cooking site or a surfing site?
We use the term onion to describe deep low pressures on the weather charts. Closely packed isobars (areas of equal pressure shown on a weather map) mean strong winds. It is these deep low pressure onions that generate the big swells. The swell will be bigger and last longer...
- the longer the onion sits out in the sea.
- the more tightly packed the isobars are. (Resulting in stronger winds)
- the bigger the area that the waves generated by the winds cover.
A good example of a surf weather chart (Can you spot the onion?)
The above pressure chart shows a large fetch area and a low pressure to generate the swell. Imagine that the low pressure area above is thousands of miles away from the surf spot. If this weather pattern did not change for days, our surf spot would be pumping. The high pressure region with a lack of isobars over the surf spot ensures that the local conditions should be good.
There we have it — wind speed, wind duration and a large fetch. Things are looking good for a surf. Now we need to look at the local conditions affecting surf quality.
Great explanation!..thanks
good for my school work at hodgson high school
thnx 4 all the info
wow! This information is very helpful! It helped me in a lot of work and helped me get better marks! I really owe this website one... This is one of the best!
this doesn't tell me what a great surfing wave is. I am doing a project and this doesn't help. THIS SITE NEEDS MORE INFO PEOPLE!!!!!!!!
great website!!!!
what ever...
great website but where is the information
ok info not the most entertaining:(
This site is helpful
great Website
mmm bit seedy..
hell yea
Nice info it helped me on my project for science
cheers
1) The diagram seems to be wrong. Assuming you are in the Northern Hemisphere, the winds should be generated clockwise around the area of high pressure (http://www.weatherquestions.com/What_causes_wind.htm). So if your surf spot is at the area of high pressure, no swells will be traveling to your island...
2) Assuming this picture is negating the Coriolis Effect which causes the differing wind patterns in the northern and southern hemispheres, then shouldn't the area of low pressure be where your surf spot is?
@Guest on Aug 8 2102: The winds generated around the high pressure will be clockwise, but will be light winds and local to the surf spot. The waves here are generated anticlockwise by the low pressure. The tight isobars here show strong winds that will be blowing the waves towards our island in a north westerly to south easterly direction.
I like surfing :)
Great info
Great for school projects
Like the guest on 8 August, I'm a little confused too. Shouldn't the wind be traveling from the high pressure system therefore pushing the waves toward the low? In other words the fetch runs from high to low? simplified of course. Tight isobars indeed indicate strong winds, but would think from southeast TO northwest. Looking for the bathymetric differences between surfable beaches and non-surfable beaches and then the mechanics of a tide bore wave compared to a typical beach wave.
Thanx so much
thank you very useful
it was rubish
If you flap your arms about really quick with a bunch of about 10 people the wind will come toward you thus bringing bigger waves. And all you need is a Phillips head to tighten up the isobars. That gives a little extra oomf!
If you all go lay out some floaters at the start of your surf then eventually they will sink and form a solid contour for your waves to break nicely
Thanks for the comment. I'm sure everyone is heading out now to flap their arms.
we had 13 surge storms in the uk between new years eve and march. i would imagine europe and the usa have half of the uk,
since then newquay is (apart from portugal) have the best surfing waves with international competitions.
since this we have had no swells what so ever... could the sea floor have damaged our seas and surfing waves?
really worried... thank you
It's great for learning about waves at hodgson academy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
thanks for the info will help me do my science fair. year 5
Cant wait to go out and start flapping my arms and laying stinkers!
Strongly helped me with my project
Thanks for the advice for my science project.
cool advise - nice cheesy jokes
their's a biggest sea surf in world.... 100ft... check it out....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0m5GEK2-7v0
thanks mate really good info
great information
what's the minimum wind speed where surfable waves could be found?
not enough info
Thank you so much. I was thinking about surfing after my New Years concert in florida
Wind direction .......... Hello!!!
I don't understand am a kid ,secondly that advertisements is not good for kids.
Wind Direction?
wow I love the surfing with the fam on Saturday at beach with bbq YAY
:P
this kinda helped, but i need info on a sci project. we were supposed to ask ourselves a question relating to water. my question was "can the time of year affect the height of waves" and I saw this website and tried to see if it did. I don't know if it does, or if u didn't know if it did. either way, this website helped a bit. thanks.
Wind blowing hard, in a large area, for a long time, generates choppy wind waves close by and long period ground swell far away. Imagine a still pond with a stone dropped in on one side of the pond. Close by the ripples are close together. Farther away the ripples spread out. If the storm is close you only get choppy smaller wind waves. If the storm that generated the waves was far away you get long period swell. For swells to have enough energy to travel far it has to be a strong wind blowing for a long time (like a few days).
All information is incorrect