the tides and their effect on surfing safely

[surfer bob]

a surf trip is in the planning (my first yay!!!!) and a mate. i just need to know about safety concerening tides like is it dangeroius to surf when the tide is going out to pacify my mum(im onlyu 15 and she's worried abouty safety)
thanks

[tree_hugger]

i've always been told that your not supposed to go in 1 hour either side of low tide when the swell is big. and obviosly at high tide look out for rocks.
surf mellowa

[nz girl]

xxxxx, i go out at any time of day, although i do try to check out the local beach cam or check the paper for tide times and swell size if i can. there are simply so many factors like wind direction, speed, swell size, low or high tide to take into consideration as to how strong the rip becomes, how big the waves are, how clean or messy it is that you'd either have to be a climatologist or have a 6th sense for the ocean to know the safest time to go out as a beginner. try to go out when lots of other surfers are out - safety in numbers and all that. don't surf by yourself if you are just learning, its stupid. ask locals where the best learning beach is - you don't exactly want to start out on a reef break, and stay on the inside until you know enough to join the more experienced people out the back. the ocean is dangerous, so have respect. having said that, surfing is the best thing in the whole world to do, so go get to it.

[PapaW]

Depends where you are.

Where are you thinking of heading?

[kieran]

every beach has different working conditions. You cant generalise is so easily.
Best to look on a beach site like wannasurf to find out the best conditions

[PapaW]

Reminds me when the Uni wanted the surf team to do a risk assesment for every beach we surfed at... lol no chance!

[surfer bob]

thanks for that info i might be able to go now :D