To my visitors.
To those of you who know me you already know who I am and no explanation is necessary. I have been surfing for over 30 years and have experienced many days along the north central coast of california. Though I am not the most well traveled surfer I have spent a great many days searching and finding some of the best waves in the santa cruz area and further north into Oregon. During this time I have also discovered what conditions make the waves the best at many spots and have collected a number of links to various tools that help me in making decisions about where and when to be at a certain spot. Though much of the time a certain amount of good fortune is required you can certainly narrow down your chances by being good about interpreting the conditions for the best chances of success. Most of my time has been spent over the years at some of my favorite spots north of santa cruz and south towards monterey. Here are a few of the most helpful links that I have put together for my own use over the years. Most of these are located on a different website called goin off but there are a few of my own that I have gathered. Additionally for every area there are resident experts that have a more thorough understanding of how to interpret conditions. Not to brag but I consider myself one of those experts and I also teach surfing so I understand both from the seasoned veteran and from the perspective of the novice what is important. I suppose I should write a book on the subject but for now I am posting my thoughts on my website. I hope you find the links useful. In the future I intend on making this site more interactive.
02-12-09 update
It would appear that we have a drought year on hand due to the rainfall totals we have seen this season. Surf conditions have been relatively mild as winter seasons are concerned and we have been oscillating between extremes in temperatures this season from far above normal to somewhat below normal for this time of year which is fairly consistent with drought years that I have experienced in the past. Surf conditions though small have been relatively good for the most part of this season with clean long period swells but time between swell cycles has been a little inconsistent. At the current time it would appear that we are now in the wettest period for the year which is coinciding with the Pebble Beach Pro-Am Golf classic. One small side note that has been seen historically is the 1959 flood reportedly significant rainfall did not begin until February. We will see if history repeats itself this year but I would suspect that it is highly doubtful.
Open the SC tide link found here http://tbone.biol.sc.edu/tide/tideshow.cgi?site=Santa+Cruz%2C+California
Notice that you can set the parameters for just about any tide frame that you want. In order to understand tidal movements it is helpful to visualize what you are looking at. Scroll down the page until you find the "Select display type" and then select the Graphic Plot radio button and hit the "Make prediction using options" button. This will give you the eb and flow of tides over the period of time that you have chosen and shows a very easy to understand graph of how tides really move. Notice that the tidal shifts are much stronger around the full and new moon phases.
