Swell Forecasting

[Christopher Wall]

I don't know if the introductory chasing forum would be the correct place to post this, but I was wondering if there was a swell forecasting thread on stormtrack? Does anyone on the forum have experience tracking and forecasting ocean swells for the purpose of predicting surf conditions, or is anyone else interested in learning more about tracking ocean swells?

Thanks for any info,
Chris Wall

 

[Kelly Sugden]

MetEd has some online modules about swell, wind waves, etc.

 

[Michael Thompson]

Swell and surf forecasting is actually quite a business. Surfing contests for example. There is an older book, called The Weather Surfer by Vic Morris, a former Naval meteorologist. I found it pitched at a great level.

Here is a link

http://www.amazon.com/weather-surfer-oceanography-meteorology-hunters/dp/0913182877

 

[Christopher Wall]

Surfline has certainly made a business out of it! They occasionally have features on what makes certain spots work, but they never go in depth in terms of how they're really making their predictions. I checked out MetEd and added that book to my wishlist. Thanks for the info!

Chris

 

[cdcollura]

Good day all,

By far the best ocean wave models are on the FNMOC's oceanography page (US Navy Fleet Numeric Modeling)...

https://www.fnmoc.navy.mil/ww3_cgi/index.html

This is a global wave and swell model ... The SAME used by Surfline's "LOLA" pages, but it's Navy and it's free.

Note: The link may generate a "security" warning in IE, but it's OK to "continue to the website"...

Hope this helps

 

[mikedeason]

This was the source of most of my training on swell waves: Aerographer's Mate 1 & Chief

Honestly, it's not something we did much of in the Marine Corps unless you were deployed. The Navy AG's, as you might guess, were more involved in oceanographic forecasting.

 

[Michael Thompson]

Ocean swells is step one to equating to a surf forecast. Each surf spot has its preferred swell direction, wind and tide. The right setup can turn a 6ft ocean swell into a 10ft reef break. I started surfing in my teens and while I am very conservative now and stick to mellow beach breaks, there was a period that I used to live for it and regularly surfed large waves.

 

[Christopher Wall]

Thanks for the info Mike and Collura!
I assure you that I'm jealous Micheal. Living here in Kansas means I can only dream of living for it(However, it also means that I have front row seats to some of the best severe weather in the world). Surfing back in the days of Occy and Tom Carroll were we?

 

[Michael Thompson]

Thanks for the info Mike and Collura!
I assure you that I'm jealous Micheal. Living here in Kansas means I can only dream of living for it(However, it also means that I have front row seats to some of the best severe weather in the world). Surfing back in the days of Occy and Tom Carroll were we?

Hi Chris

Well the down side to living here is with the maritime environment we do lousy on thunderstorms, this year with La Nina the worst I can remember. I predate Occy and Carroll and tiny bit, but not by much.