What makes good freeride surf?

[rasper99]

Last weekend our group went on a freeride off Long Beach, WA. According to the board surfing forecast site magicseaweed.com it was supposed to five star surf.

There were 10-12 foot curls off in the distance that a board surfer would like. The stuff closer in wasn't that great for freeride. It was breaking all over the place. Even though it was 15 secs between the swells coming in up close the waves were sometimes right on each other.

Last December at the same location the surf was sweet. Nice big, far apart swells that had to think hard before breaking. The ocean bottom drops off slowly and there is a sand bar about 1/4 mile out.

Here is a saved copy of the surf forecast from Saturday morning:
http://www.barry-blanchard.com/movies/tmp/2007_01_27_07_00.html

I've read some stuff about "surf science" on various board surfing sites that explain how the swells form and move thousands of miles across the ocean. Read how onshore winds make messy, foamy crap. Then how the angle the swells hit the beach matters.

So how does this all work? Was it bad because the tide was unusually low causing the ocean bottom to drop off even more slowly?

We have always gone down the beach access road and lauched there. Should we drive or freeride up and down the beach to look for better surf? The beach is over 20 miles long.

 

[Sanford]

Freeride is what you do, not specific a type of "surf."

A freerider will make the best out of most situations and not be affraid to venture away from a gas jug.

My favorite type of "freeriding" is when a few friends and I ride up/down the coast (on the outside) to the next inlet, get gas and food on water, ride back and do this while hitting as many waves along the way. Do this this from 9:am to sunset and this makes me a very happy freerider.

My favorite type of surf is 4' to 6' on a ground swell with West wind on an incoming tide with no sign of surfers :notworthy:

 

[Idok]

Freeride is what you do, not specific a type of "surf."

A freerider will make the best out of most situations and not be affraid to venture away from a gas jug.

My favorite type of "freeriding" is when a few friends and I ride up/down the coast (on the outside) to the next inlet, get gas and food on water, ride back and do this while hitting as many waves along the way. Do this this from 9:am to sunset and this makes me a very happy freerider.

My favorite type of surf is 4' to 6' on a ground swell with West wind on an incoming tide with no sign of surfers :notworthy:

i like it a bit smaller than that......and with DEEP water (sandbars suck)

 

[WaveDemon]

i like it a bit smaller than that......and with DEEP water (sandbars suck)

Deep water is for sissys. give me a breaking wave over a sandbar anytime.

 

[kingnothing3]

just be happy you have waves at all! some of us ride on semi flat chopy stuff.

Any wave condition is perfect for freeriding!

 

[Nascency Chris]

i would for sure do more research into what makes the waves in your area break the best...(best being whatever condition you like the most)...

 

[Idok]

Deep water is for sissys. give me a breaking wave over a sandbar anytime.

but if the waves are breaking only over a sandbar, then that means there's probably not any waves anywhere else...ergo, shallow water it is...


at both of out spots you can pretty much ALWYS find waves over the sandbar

 

[jetskier79]

i like it a bit smaller than that.

What a urr:

 

[hangtime]

I like waist to chest ground swell and west winds :biggthumpup: :cool2: :arms: :arms: :arms:

 

[wydopen]

10-12' and light offshore winds..to answer the first guys question you just need to spend a little time at your local spot ad see how different winds/ tides swell directions effect where you ride..in that video crab posted it actually looked really clean outside..you guys were just riding the inside shorebreak...it looked to me like it was a really flat beach and thats why there is so much whitewater rolling through the inside...try and find a reef break in your area (without surfers) and there should be a nice channel with the waves focusing on one spot rather than an open beachbreak which is hard to get out in larger conditions..in allreality if you arnt experienced in the ocean and are unfamiliar with ocean conditions than i wouldnt reccomend going out when its bigger than head high considering you live in the pacnw..the ocean can eat you really quick up there...trust me i know ive been surfing scence i was 5 and i still get humbled by the ocean on a regular basis

 

[oxnard111]

What a urr:

lol


Just b/c we don't get 15 plus feet off an attempted backflip doesn't make us purrsss... or wait... maybe it does? haha

 

[Idok]

What a urr:

zip it blasterboy, or I will dump the seawater out of my vacuum on your head

 

[Phsurf760]

I prefer something with punch, winds swell is generally weak but a good grounds swell will bring every surfer in so. cal out of the woodwork. In a 20 mile stretch im sure you can find a break working no matter what the tide height is. I surf alot more than i freeride so here's how i judge when to go: if the tide is dropping usually the waves are sucking up and pitching. Coming up they kinda push and are mushy. May be different up there but 'round here I like a dropping tide.

 

[wydopen]

May be different up there but 'round here I like a dropping tide.

yea man every spot is different

 

[jetskier79]

lol


Just b/c we don't get 15 plus feet off an attempted backflip doesn't make us purrsss... or wait... maybe it does? haha

I prefer the 4-7ft and peaky.

 

[GDFL]

I'll take another order of that glassy, long period stuff we had for the first big ride at the spot during the summer. That stuff was the shiz

 

[rasper99]

Thanks for all the good info and some fine trash talkin' between you all. I will check back to see what other people have to say. I assume when the people back east say they like west winds that would be east for us.

Our gang isn't doing backies here in the Pacific northwest but when the surf gets big and nasty staying alive is a pretty good challenge. The winter average is about 7 foot swells and can go up to almost 40 feet.

We have been going to Long Beach, WA because it's kind of midway between Portland and Seattle. Unfortunately the ocean bottom drops off slowly at LB. There are some nicer surfing places off the Oregon coast but it's a long haul for the folks up north.

As some people mentioned I think the main problem is the shallow slope of the ocean bottom. I assume the water sliding back in breaks the waves. From what I have heard most of the 28 miles of the Long Beach, WA peninsula has a similar shallow slope. I was thinking of finding depth charts to see if it was better elsewhere along there.

One ride we were about 9 miles further north and it sucked even more. There was a sandbar just under the water about 50 yards out. The first few riders shot off the beach then came to a quick stop.

I have been trying to do some research. I have my Linux box (it also grabbed the 3500 Daytona web cam pix) collecting surf forecasts every hour for research. I was also collecting pix from a webcam to see how the numbers related to the surf pictures.

Unfortunately we had some nasty storms blow through this winter and the webcam quit on 1/4. I have a the last two weeks of December to check out. I just found another web cam in the area so I will start collecting pix from it.

While typing this I was screwing with Google Earth and can see how the waves look different as I work my way up the beach. Hmmmm...

 

[sea-dude]

10-12' and light offshore winds..to answer the first guys question you just need to spend a little time at your local spot ad see how different winds/ tides swell directions effect where you ride..in that video crab posted it actually looked really clean outside..you guys were just riding the inside shorebreak...it looked to me like it was a really flat beach and thats why there is so much whitewater rolling through the inside...try and find a reef break in your area (without surfers) and there should be a nice channel with the waves focusing on one spot rather than an open beachbreak which is hard to get out in larger conditions..in allreality if you arnt experienced in the ocean and are unfamiliar with ocean conditions than i wouldnt reccomend going out when its bigger than head high considering you live in the pacnw..the ocean can eat you really quick up there...trust me i know ive been surfing scence i was 5 and i still get humbled by the ocean on a regular basis

There was no way to get out to the "outside break" It would have been a death wish. I think we need to look at other areas.

 

[rasper99]

Mike has gone way out there on his XPDI. He didn't do it much since no one was out there to help.

There was no way to get out to the "outside break" It would have been a death wish. I think we need to look at other areas.

 

[Jetaddict]

Some of the best surf I have seen out here on the west coast of Florida is from the hurricane that is churning well out in the gulf, heading northbound to make landfall in Louisiana or Texas. This is the kind of surf you get from a storm surge pushing at just the right distance from the land- if it is too close, the wind will blow out the surf and make it overly choppy and just not fun. We had a nice time with some 5 foot to 6 foot rollers one time (can't remember the name of the hurricane), that were spaced well so you didn't land on top of the next wave. That, to me, makes for the perfect surf. We were catching some sick air and had enough hang time to pull of can-cans, attempted seat grabs and no handers. It was awesome.