We had a clear nice day with practically no wind this morning and it was fun but waves a bit challenging to get outside. We were looking for the good S waves but the W wind swells were also prevailing... a combined sea situation. But it was good surf with Laura and also planned a bit more about upcoming camping trip for us.
Today's StokeThoughts is on Wave Selections.
Tonight I was thinking about the topic of wave selection. Now many of us can take off and do basic surfing, and many of us are practicing for better technique, but one that is not written often about is the topic of wave selection. And what I mean by this are basically the following issues.
- Can find and put yourself in a location where the break is optimum.
- Can you pick the wave that will give the best ride. Often it is not the most powerful break in the set. But a good break will be the kind that will give you longer ride.
- Once you are up on the board, are you assessing the change in the waves and correcting the course.
At my current point of time, I am not doing any of that. I can gauge where and when the waves break but that's about it and I am often overly eager to catch anything that breaks. So I do get rides, and sometimes it is good, and sometimes it is not good, and often gotten eaten up or even a wave is a big fizzler. But looking at Jen's boyfriend, Paul, last week, he knows where to go and waits and only catches the wave that is good to go.
It is a part of the reason why going to Santa Cruz is kind of nice because breaks are more consistent in terms of location, the shape and the direction. If you see one break, then you can more or less just go back to where that has happened and then just wait for the next one to come.
On the beach break situations, while you could argue that there is some consistency over a sand-bar etc., but even then the waves can break in either directions etc., and it is often the case that I need to paddle up and down throughout the session.
Well, this is a rather deep subject so I will be touching on this subject now and then in more depth.
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