What Makes Ideal Surfable Waves

There are two main factors that determine how good the surf will be. Firstly 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 are 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 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 wave 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 (like that - onions 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 (the stronger the winds will be)
• the bigger the area that the winds generated by the winds cover

A Good Surf Weather Chart (spot the onion! )

The above pressure chart shows a large fetch area and a low pressure to generate the swell. Imagine that 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.