CRNW Forecast of Wed, 2021-0609 (morning)

The cams show the surf breaking 3-4 ft, more cleanly than the past couple of days. Thu and Fri are generally forecast to be 2-3 ft in 7 sec wind swell. Saturday boosts up with 4.3 ft 17 sec southerly (191). The good news is that the darn 7 sec swell isn't going to last as long or be as prominent (more like 2.2 rather than 4.4 ft). From there out the surf forecast is never under 3-4 ft and our trip ends in a walloping on Thu, June 24th, with a 4.8 20 sec swell at 198 degrees SSW (the day before it is 2.2 @25sec!). Wed is looking like the antigen test day after 3 days of steady swell and the prowl Northside Rock on Thursday.

 

 

 

The data has confirmed today what I suspect... that his long period swell on Thur is still a building wave-maker. Friday will be our last hurrah!

 

 

The Black Line of Fog is increasing.

 

Get a good night's sleep! We will want to hike up to the Hill to look out for a good view of the currents on Wed, Thu, and Fri (although Wed won't be showing the effect of Tide+Swell it is a good baseline view). We will have entered the max-tide zone by that Tuesday so will need to be laser-sharp on our surf windows.

 

 

 

Today's Fun Lesson of Trivia Facts on Tides

 

The rate of change is constant during a tidal change, roughly equal each increment of change (lets just call those 1 hr intervals). That was a question we discussed during out last trip as the max tides (also called Spring and King tides). Well, almost. If fact the curve is more like a bell curve, starts slowly and ends slowly:

• the first and last hour are 1/12th, 
• the second and 5th hour are 1/6th
• the middle hours are 3/12th

In other words, the most accelerated rate of change is during the middle hours where half of the movement occurs. Simplified, we will experience around 5 ft of tidal change between 945a and noon on Thu (day #2 in the above table). [Side Lesson: this is why it is harder to paddle in at the end of an outgoing tide session!]

 

It also is worth repeating, "In other words we should be thinking about the tide as an absolute height, rather than in high or low – as there is so much variation between high and low throughout the year." We also have observed the effects of incoming and outgoing tides on the surf in CR--one restores the swell and the other kills the swell, in general.

 

The figure below shows the areas around the globe experiencing the most and least tidal change. HI and PR are on the low end; and, areas such as the PNW, the UK and down through Spain, Equador-CR-Salvador are all on the high ends.

 

Learn more at SurfSimply.com