Leash or No Leash…My Vote

There are two schools of thought - or two different debates - when it comes to surfing.  One: Longboarding or shortboarding? Longboarding is better. That one’s easy.  Moving on to the second: Leash or No Leash? I thought I’d cast my vote in this debate (er, school of thought), since the first one is an [...]

72 hours out of the water - Ask a Surf Forecaster

DailyStoke.com: Don’t you think this whole run-off, “don’t get in the water for 72 hours” thing is just an excuse for pussies not to paddle out in an actual swell? I mean storms = swell, right? All I hear when there are waves is a bunch of dudes on the cliff goin’ “Yeah man, looks [...]

Blacks Beach and stretches of the coastline - Ask a Surf Forecaster

DailyStoke.com: How does “basically flat” at most southern California breaks play out at Blacks Beach? Other than Blacks beach, are there many other breaks in southern California where bathometrics really come into play in predicting wave heights? Are there any stretches of coast that propose significant challenges when making predictions?
Socalsurf.com: Conditions at all of [...]

Hype, and the Surf Forecast - Ask a Surf Forecaster

DailyStoke.com: Wave forecasting sites have been taken to task most recently for the “Overhyped Swell of January 2009.” At the same time, Justin Cote at Transworld wrote to regular surfers saying, “C’mon, figure it out for yourself.” More broadly, surf forecasting anywhere, let alone in SoCal, is a lot of pressure. Do you take [...]

Surf Forecasts, and more surfers in the water - Ask a Surf Forecaster

DailyStoke.com: A common question from all of our writers. Do you ever alter the forecasts in order to get swells to yourself? But you want to, don’t you? ☺

Socalsurf.com: Hahaha…awesome question. I get it asked in-person every once in a while too. Personally I never alter forecasts…never ever. Really there isn’t much of a [...]

Verifying the surf forecast with visuals at the break - Ask a Surf Forecaster

DailyStoke.com: How often do you go to the breaks to check the swell in person? It seems like it must be a mix of science, art, guesstimating, surf cams and first person insight. You can’t be everywhere, of course. One of the most common questions we hear is: “Is [Kevin on Surfline] really seeing what [...]

Understanding the Hawaiian scale, and wave height - Ask a Surf Forecaster

DailyStoke.com: What’s the deal with the Hawaiian scale and measuring waves from the back of the wave? Shouldn’t waves be measured from the point of view of a terrified surfer who’s late for the drop on something that’s “only 10 feet” Hawaiian? Then, when it’s measured on the face… Waist, Chest, Head –surfers wonder if [...]

Surf Forecasting Technology - Ask a Surf Forecaster

DailyStoke.com: How do you feel that forecasting technology will advance in the future? Or are we at the…uhh…peak now? How do you feel that forecasting technology is changing the surf culture?

Socalsurf.com: I think we are a long way from the “peak” of forecasting technology. Just like every form of technology…Forecasting technology is going to get [...]

Surf Forecasting Resources for Regular Surfers - Ask a Surf Forecaster

Over the coming days, we’ll be profiling the work of Adam Wright, from SoCal Surf Forecast. Adam was cool enough to answer a series of questions from our writers, all about surf forecasts. Here goes!
DailyStoke.com: It’s one thing to follow a surfing forecast site like yours, religiously, but it’s quite another to understand in great [...]

I don’t even know how to spell Corilois – Misunderstandings about Surf Forecasting - Ask a Surf Forecaster

DailyStoke.com: What is the most frequently misunderstood element of surf forecasting made by regular surfers who are trying to understand the forecasts?

Socalsurf.com: That is sort of a hard one to pin down…there are a lot of confusing concepts in forecasting… How swell direction (and swell period) interact with local geography and bathometry is usually something [...]