How big is this wave??

[Thewildething]

Sure do, the swell height is roughly half the face height of the wave (the wave height) so a 3ft swell produces waves with 6 feet faces, ask anyone who knows anything about waves, the swell heigh is what most, if not all surfers go by so the waves in those pictures are 3 ft maximum.

[kieran]

Location Swell ht. Period Wind Dir. Wind Speed

North East (62164) 5.9ft 7secs N 15mph

this is my local break data at the moment (magicseaweed.com) if i went down there now your saying i could expect to see 12ft waves breaking

i think you mean the other way round dont you 6ft swell gives 3ft waves

[Guest]

Keiran - I'd get loading up the car if I were you!!

tee hee!!


TheWildThing ;

I think you might find it works the other way round. Swell is generally the size of the waves out to sea. A 6 ft swell will produce waves around 2-3ft high!

Sinista

[Thewildething]

Im affraid I dissagree, you would not see 12 ft waves breaking at your home break,firstly because the water is shallow and the energy is dissapated before they break and secondly with a period of 7 seconds this cannot be called swell, its only old windslop, thirdly are they hitting the shore directly on or at a slant? Put it this way a 3ft swell with a 16 second period has been proven to produce sets of 7ft face height where as as 3ft swell with a 10 second period only produces sets with 4-5ft face height. So with a period of only 7 seconds the wave face height will be a fraction of the swell height out at sea hence a 2-3ft wave. If you see a 5.9ft swell with a 16 second period then you will see 12ft faces rolling in. Period is far more important to determining wave height than the actuall swell height, but as a rule of thumb (where i live, North Devon) the Atlantic swell is roughly half the wave height, so at Croyde, (my local) a 3ft swell does produce a 6ft face wave. Do you live on an ocean coast of a small sea?? it makes a lot of difference, swell needs fetch, if you havent got fetch you aint got swell, just slop blown up quickly by wind. Take it to the extreme, a tsunami may only be 3ft high in the open ocean with a period of 20 minutes, but you can bet your bottom dollar it aint gonna be 3ft when it reaches land.

[kieran]

Location Swell ht. Period Wind Dir. Wind Speed
South West (near shore) 7.2ft 16secs WNW 9.2mph

Okay then thewildthing here is your local buoy data at 9.50am this morning, here is croydes eyeball surf report this morning


CROYDE 1-2ft NW light clean 1556 0932

Can you explain this to me cos i really could do with some 14ft waves this weekend

I think that maybe its best that i stay in my poor windslop area cos ive seen the north devon buoy upto 30ft during the hurricane season. Unfortunately i dont think im upto those 60ft rollers low tide at croyde, if you have surfed in those conditions then its still not too late to join the asp world tour you know, or meet up with ken bradshaw for a cup of tea and piss around at jaws for a couple of hours

[Guest]

OK I think, before this gets into a slanging match, that part of the problem is where you are measuring the swell.

I agree that in the mid atlantic a 3 ft wave spread out over a 16 second period is a hell of a lot of water, and that same wave when it reaches the shore it will have caught up with other waves and essentially the same amount of water will be squashed and the only way to go being upwards, it will be a hell of a lot bigger!.

However, as you mentioned there are so many other factors to take into account. As you said, if the waves are hitting the beach at an angle or wrapping around a point into the bay, the energy (which is essentially all that waves are) will be dissipated and the height will decrease.

North Devon and Cornwall consistently get good waves because they have an unobstructed fetch out into the atlantic.

However, you can't predict waves from buoys alone. Waves are made by wind! If the buoy readings you are looking at are where in the middle of the 'wind area' then energy is still being given to these waves. If the wind continues almost all the way to the shore, then the waves reaching the beach will still have a lot of power.

If the buoy is positioned just as the waves leave the wind area and are still a long way offshore, then the waves have a long time to lose their power and dissipate.

I think the best way of predicting waves is to be aware of the following pieces: Pressure Areas (these give information about wind speeds and directions) Swell forecasts, buoy information, other people's predictions and webcams.

I tend to look at the web cams on a daily basis, then check the pressure charts. Over a period of time you will be able to marry up the pressure areas with the swell they produce. You also get an idea for how long a swell will last etc.

The thing is it's Nature, which can basically do whatever the hell it likes. All the signs can point to a great swell coming, and it can suddenly disappear. Likewise, you can be predicting poor surf and overnight everything can change.

You can NEVER know for sure!!

Cheers

Sinista

[Guest]

Did you actually read what I put, the buoy is no where near croyde, its in deep water allowing swell to travel unhampered, the sea bed offshore at croyde and pretty much all the bristol channel is really shallow, dissapating energy. If you want a 14 ft wave, pop out to this buoy and build a reef, im sure it will throw 14 ft of wave. There is no 'hurricane season' in the uk, there is no North Devon buoy, and the buoys in the atlantic rarely get above 30 ft so where you got that lot from I dont know. Anyway, come down here on a BIG swell and try croyde, it gets above 30ft face height every few years, and did so in 2001, some say it was 18ft (swell/back of the wave, whatever) which i rekon is over the top but I know it was big and I dont think anyone went out.

[kieran]

i dont really want to start a slanging match but in my experience the swell wave height is usually bigger than the waves you get on the beach. I can understand that some beaches have a certain bathometry that allows waves to jack up, hawaii for example. But for most of the time the energy is dissipated as you said before it reaches the beach
FYO
I found this

Atlantic Hurricanes
In September and October hurricanes in the Western Atlantic and Carribean lash the coasts of the USA and Carribean countries. While bad news for the locals of the area, this is good news for surfers in the UK as the storms can cross into the mid-Atlantic. There they generate large amounts of swell which can provide huge waves (Over 20') by the British Isles.

Kieran

[PapaW]

I'll just add my two pence here...

kieran - I fully agree with you... as a general rule thats is what happends. However where the wave forms and WHAT it forms over (Reef, Point, Sandbar, shorey etc) will affect not only the size hight wise, but the shape and profile of the wave.

Lets say (ignoring wind) a 4ft swell with a 10+sec period is reported fromoffshore bouy.

If this where to hit a big bay with a shallow gratient and small banks then its going to be a PHAT wave with little hight... round 2ft ideal profile for longboarders.
But if its going to be approaching a steep sand bank or point break or reef etc... then its going to be suddendly faced with a stopper to the wave energy. The circuler wave motion will suck up over the bank/rock/whatever and give a sharp steep face often at a greater hight. (Spongeing time :D)

Then of course there are wedges... :)

Now I'm not saying thats the correct explanation but its a fairly good generalisation. feel free to dissagree!

[sinistapenguin]

Thanks Papa

That's kind of what I was meaning to say, only reading back my last post it does sound like I'm talking complete rubbish!

Sorry everyone!

Sinista

[Thewildething]

Ah I see what you mean by the Hurricane season Kieran, when they dispatch chunky swell this way, i thought you meant the uk getting hurricanes. Always a good time of year, especially if the remanents of the storm go North of Scotland thus the anti cyclonic movement gives us light easterly winds and plenty of surf, perfect, apart from when its quite big and i get an ass kicking.
I agree with you papa woolacombe about what is coming over and the depth etc, and also do you live in wooly? I havent actually surfed wooly cus im down the croyde-barnstaple end but I surf puts quite often.

Cheers guys

TWT.

[Guest]

Hey Yo

Origanlly come from a house in da country on the somerset Devon Boarder near tiverton but I left there for uni in Bangor two years ago now. I live and workin in woola over the summer.
Woola has always been my fav break and i got the nickname for being the daddy of woolacombe to all my pallies ... (thats kinda the story anyway)

Aye puts is the choice of kings in a storm for deffo. Cryode has allways been a down the list choice for years beacause of the sewage problem there. However the new UV plant seems to have sorted that.. but the problems been replaced by another... Seasonal and weekender Kooks!

Can't have everythign I guess :p

Woolacombe and its numerious breaks for all conditions have done me proud over the years. Combesgate-Grunta usualy the break of choice... the sand banks of late have been giving a slightly suckyer wave then Main beach does.. Being a b00ger i go for that :)

Where in the area are you to d00d?

[PapaW]

Sos that was me above... bloomin cookies not loging me in...


Hey Yo

Origanlly come from a house in da country on the somerset Devon Boarder near tiverton but I left there for uni in Bangor two years ago now. I live and workin in woola over the summer.
Woola has always been my fav break and i got the nickname for being the daddy of woolacombe to all my pallies ... (thats kinda the story anyway)

Aye puts is the choice of kings in a storm for deffo. Cryode has allways been a down the list choice for years beacause of the sewage problem there. However the new UV plant seems to have sorted that.. but the problems been replaced by another... Seasonal and weekender Kooks!

Can't have everythign I guess :p

Woolacombe and its numerious breaks for all conditions have done me proud over the years. Combesgate-Grunta usualy the break of choice... the sand banks of late have been giving a slightly suckyer wave then Main beach does.. Being a b00ger i go for that :)

Where in the area are you to d00d?

[Thewildething]

I am just outside Barnstaple (on the Bideford side), Westward Ho! beach is the closest beach to me, the surf isnt hollow there like croyde nor is it as mellow as saunton, its in between. A really good thing about WW ho! is an amazing lack of crowds, even in the height of the summer when a 4ft surf is running it is empty, all the weekenders and grockels get cleared out by the sets, so we sometimes go there for some peace and quiet.
Mostly we go saunton for the logs-mini mals or croyde for the short boards and if its all blown out head to puts for some decent high tide surf. Good thing about living round here is that we have 3 huge beaches (ww Ho!, wooly and Saunton) so we can always find a peak to ourselves. There are a few reefs around baggy too that we watches when fishing, one we were watching was the hollowest I have ever seen round here, it was thick and heavy too, trouble was it was breaking into about waist deep water, the ride was short but for a quick adrenaline rush it would have been great, miss your takeoff though and pay for it dearly.

Cheers
TWT.

[PapaW]

Aye for defoo. The Teams away trips officer (Sal) used to live in Westward Ho! Her pa was the parish vicar!

Arn't the Ironing Board surf championships held at Westward?!?

Never liked Saunton, one cause its phat and two cause all the crap comming out of Barnstapel bay.. washes into the cliff corner :(

You gotta love the secrete sports along Baggy and Morte Point. Sme of these places can really hold a massive swell at low tide :D

[Jimmy]

That first wave is 1-2 foot (waist hight), and the second one 2-3 foot (head high).
waves are measured from the back

[Jimmy]

OK, let's put this to the test.

How big is this wave?



This should give us an idea of how we all measure waves! I won't prejudice anyone by putting my guess.......yet!

Sinista

If this is 5-6' than I have surfed waves of 20-30 foot.

[kieran]

waves used to be measured from the back in hawaii to make tourists think that it was smaller than it actualy was. However its now illegal to measure waves from the back due to so many people getting battered and sueing the place that gave the surf report.

"2-3 foot (head high)" im guessing your measuring that from the back or are you a tiny surfer