Friday, 27 November 2009

Smell that? That's a brand new swell!

We've finally got some good quality, long-range spikes queued up, probably somewhere off Aberdeen right now, marching it's way joyfully down the North Sea coasts. Unfortunately though, it might well be accompanied by it's best mate the wind, who happens to be a right annoying cow! We'll have to see what happens there, but hold-hard shipmates, this could well be a good one.

It's really hard to call, there's so much going on with the weather at the moment, but if you had a gun to my head and asked for a prediction I'd predict that the Scarborough area may well look something like this:
Saturday: looks like it'll be 1ft in the morning and 3ft by nightfall. So the swell will be getting it's shit together throughout the day. Period is a respectable 11 seconds, so expect to see lines to the horizon. Bit of everything wind-wise. From light to fresh, and from every conceivable direction. Makes it fun I suppose.

Sunday: If you checked here earlier you'd have seen that I was saying it could be a good day. Well, that was before we got thrown a curve-ball. Now we've got moderate to fresh Nor'lies. Great. Don't know what to predict anymore, that low sat over us is giving me the run-around. If the wind ends up ok, it could be 4-6ft later on so you might want to investigate the reefs/points if you know your stuff.

Monday: Super-sized. Difficult to say how big, kind of irrelevant, let's just say it's accompanied by it's mate the wind again, and he's pissed! Big big northerly, stormy day, get your mittens on, grab the camera and go for a jaunt down the beach.

But if it does go offshore! You're gonna get some, and a half.

Tuesday: Looking good again. Good waves, good wind. It's a long way off.

Oh and it's cold. Real cold. You might see a brass monkey or two.

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**NB—Heights of waves given are for the back of the wave NOT the face. So when I say 6-8ft, I mean a wave that's more than two of you are high, ya get meh? Anything that big looks and feels like a bungalow falling on your head.

2 comments:

  1. Shamus HeaneyDecember 29, 2009

    why do you measure a wave from the back, seems silly to me. a wave on a reef can break in a totally different way to a beach break, a two footer measured your way can create a head-high wave at one, and a waist high one at another... discuss

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  2. Well Shamus, habit I suppose. I know of surfers that measure the wave face, but many more that don't. Although, I don't think many would actually go as far as to literally measure the back by eye, no I think it's more of a mutual understanding perhaps? Measuring the wave face is definitely more logical I grant you that, and yes, some waves have more 'back' than others, and if you're a beginner it definitely makes more sense to measure the face, but I don't know many experienced surfers who'd measure a wave from peak to trough. Odd? Yes. Tradition? Maybe. Mine and my mates' way of doing it? Definitely.

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