From: tkaczuk.apple.com (Rick Donnelly)
Newsgroups: rec.boats.paddle
Subject: Re: wave terms, Montery surfing
Date: 16 Nov 92 16:33:54 GMT
Followup-To: rec.boats.paddle
Distribution: ca
Organization: Apple


In article <1dmferINN8gd@overload.lbl.gov>, mikec@ux1.lbl.gov (Mike Chin)
wrote:
> 
> What do the terms "seas, waves, swells" mean when used on
> the NOAA weather broadcast? Typically, they'll say something like
> "Point Pinos, seas to 8', swells to 12'... ". Ocassionally it'll
> be something using the "wave" term like "Montara wave gauge reports
> 10' waves..."
> 
> I was at Asilomar beach on Sunday, the weather report was seas to 9'
> every 10 seconds. Walls of waves were breaking 200yds offshore, and
> looked at least 8', breaking chaotically. Even the board surfers
> stayed on shore, and I wasn't confident enuf to venture out there alone
> in my newly acquired X-1. Lover's Pt had 3-5' crumblers, but it was
> filled with board surfers. Is there any good yak surfing near Montery?
> 
> mike chin
> MJChin@lbl.gov

Mike,

The term "swells" is an indicator of the size of the incoming (from sea)
swells. These are formed, generally, by storm conditions out at sea and
have probably travelled several thousand (at least on our coast) miles.
Swells tend to be fairly regular in size and frequency and don't generally
pose much of a
threat to a sea kayaker.

"Seas" indicate the current local conditions on the water. Seas are
affected 
by a variety of factors, the most significant being the local wind action.
It
can take several hours of wind before the local conditions change, but when

it starts to change, it changes quickly and can become very chaotic in a
very 
short time.

Large swells, such as you describe, are pretty common in winter in
Monterey.
Frankly, unless you wear body armor and other such gear (check out the
stories in Sea Kayaker written by Eric Soares - he and his group, the
Tsunami Rangers,
designed the X-1 you have and use them extensively on the exposed coast
between Monterey and Carmel), this coastline is extremely hazardous. There
are many intertidal rocks (ie. exposed only at low tide or in the troughs
of large waves) and unsettled conditions such as you describe are pretty
common.

As to good kayak surfing sites, there are probably many on the beaches
north of Monterey, but inside the bay, when there are waves, the surf zones
tend to be very small, often only 10-15 feet wide, except on the largest
waves. North of Monterey, Sunset offers a nice sandy beach with lots of
good sized, fairly regular waves. Surf action here can be extensive. Sea
Cliff has a very short, dumping, surf zone. Not recommended. New Brighton
is rocky on the N-NW shore and becomes sandy as you move to the SE (toward
Sea Cliff). In the middle, you may find some decent surfing, but getting
your kayak there will probably require launching from New Brighton. Lastly,
I have body surfed these sites, but I don't particularly like to surf in my
kayak which was not designed for such activity. I practice usually in
Monterey at the sandy beaches just to the east of Monterey Bay Kayaks, but
these also tend to have dumping surf. Good practice, but rough.

Rick
Newsgroups: rec.boats.paddle