A couple posts ago I mentioned how a particular surf spot will begin to populate when the right conditions begin to work.  Like a break that works best on a higher tide will be vacant when the tide is low and as the tide fills in people with surf boards begin to show up… especially if there is a swell in the water.

Depending on what your routine is for knowing and going for a surf you may or may not venture to the beach. It’s pretty easy these days to know when there is a swell arriving and hence plan your days accordingly… My son always has his phone in his pocket. He’ll be at the house pull his phone out tap it a couple times and say “ you know there’s surf, and the conditions look pretty clean right now, wanna go?” …I wonder how may people do that at any given time on any given day?....

Anyway, this past week we received a nice southern hemisphere swell. Actually 3 back to back that ran for about 6 days from start to finish, building to a peak 3 days in. I wanted that swell bad. But, as is typical this time of year, the channel winds picked up a day or so before the swell began to peak. The ingredients for junk. And junk it was.

I knew it was junk without even seeing the ocean. There are things that monitor ocean conditions thanks to technology. One can check those things to know before you go. I do it almost daily as part of my routine for surfing.

As it happened the conditions didn’t improve until the third day of the week. I went and got a bit of the swell but, conditions still weren’t that good. By Thursday conditions improved more but the swell was fading, and fading more Friday with condition good by then.

Fingers crossed for the next decent summer swell and good conditions to go with it.

D.R.

Meg and her Gadget