The buoy has been reading 1' all last night and still today. But when I showed up the waves were clean and thigh high for a couple of hours. One old salt said he scored waist high set around sunrise. The waves came down by around 10-10:30. SI called it flat, but that's logical since the buoy showed 1' hour after hour. How does that work that the buoy is so wrong? It was SUPERFUN though and confirms "go before you know"
My guess is the buoy isn't wrong. Its all about how you interpret the data. Remember that most buoys are putting out data : "Significant wave height is the average of the highest one-third of all of the wave heights during the sampling period." So its an AVERAGE. If you think about all of the ankle high ones you didn't ride, combine them with the thigh high ones you did, the average might be one foot. Also, the buoy's don't measure breaking wave height, they measure unbroken swell out in deeper water. Waves steepen up and get taller as they enter shallower water and break. This is especially true for longer swell periods i.e. 9+ seconds. If I saw the buoy reading 2 feet at 11 seconds, I would expect to be able to find waist-stomach high waves at a spot that was working. Like you said, lots of times you just gotta check it. GLAD YOU SCORED!
I've had this debate on here before and I WANT TO END IT. The buoy doesn't event tell you everything you need to know. It's for mariners. Check surfline. They breakdown the swell components. It's MUCH more than just significant wave height vs swell height. If you look here. http://www.surfline.com/buoy-report/_20914_44097/ There's actually FOUR swells in the water coming in from station 44097 even though only 2 are reported at the official site.. The buoy at http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=44097 only shows swell height and significant wave height. It adds swells on top of each other. It's irrelevant for surfing and doesn't show all the data that a buoy collects. Surfline has ALL the data from the buoy if you go to their site. From surfline: "When forecasting incoming swell, this offshore buoy network is a wealth of information. But what are we really looking at? The main source of information for offshore buoy data comes from the National Data Buoy Center (NDBC). NDBC collects this data and displays the significant wave height and period along with the dominant swell height and period. This is great for mariners, but surfers need a bit more detail. The instruments on the various offshore buoys record much more data than we actually see on the individual buoy summaries that are available online at NDBC (example Buoy 41046). NDBC does collect much more data than is displayed, but only displays the coarser significant wave height (highest 1/3 of waves) and the dominant swell." BETTY!!!! READ THIS: Here's A GUIDE TO READING A BUOY. Pages and pages long. EXPLAINS EVERYTHING. http://www.surfline.com/surf-news/understanding-lola-real-time-buoys_123018/ Also, I'll add something else. If you watch the surf constantly on a 3 foot a 8 second swell coming in from the south, montauk can be waist high while south facing rhode island is flat SOMETIMES(not always). Waves lose height as they travel from their source of generation. So you really have to look at a surf report/cam to know for sure. A buoy is a tool. NOT A CRYSTAL BALL. A lot of times when surfers say it was 10 feet at 10 seconds, many times that's total b.s. It was multiple swells that were added up to significant wave height or even a swell height. Also, you can have an overhead swell when the wind wave height is 8 feet at 9 seconds, but the swell height component listed on nbdc is 2 feet at 11 seconds. Two different variables.
hardcore--if you believe ANYTHING surf line tells you, you are a moron. Based on your statements interpreting data, you are a moron. If you are a boogie boarder, you are a moron. If you have 3 moron strikes against you, you are a moron. hahahahaha!!
Ok. My friends husband who is a great surfer said its a "refraction swell" , something about the west wind hits the Bahamas and is refracted back to Florida. I googled refraction swell and I had trouble visualizing the physics of it in the Google article. Apparently it happens sometimes in central and south Florida. Oh and thank you hardcoreboogieboarder for taking the time to explain buoy readings. I will read the link you suggested.
Yeah Betty! Got some waist high sliders about an hour or so North of you. 2ft @ 8 seconds translated to 3ft waves on average, maybe one or two that were bigger.
i go to Hatteras and have a great day of surf and ask Scott why nobody was out. He says because surfline didn't tell them there was surf. i love it.
I awoke rather late Sunday morning to a text from my surf buddy saying that FP had some waves. Checked the forecasts to see if I had missed something. Nope, all still said ankle high or flat. Was tempted to head up but it would have been gone by the time I got there. Don't have any explanation for your good fortune other than what has been already offered but be thankful you got it. I've been the beneficiary of phantom swell. A year or so ago a small, clean SE swell showed up. Now, we never get anything but choppe from the SE but this one must have snuck between the islands just right. Not on any forecasts so I think I was the only one who got it. I like "go before you know". Worked for me a few times. I'll add it to "if in doubt, paddle out". You never regret going to the beach or getting in the water. Glad you got some, Betty.
Not sure why everybody calls this phenomenon "refraction swell" when it is actually reflection. Refraction = bending. Reflection = bouncing. Either way, I don't think that's what you got. The "refraction swell" happens when a swell is created in the small fetch between the Florida coast and the Bahamas. The waves (not the wind) bounce off the islands and return to Florida kind of like the back wash waves that we sometimes get. It requires some stout winds to blow for a day or two typically out of the WNW. It usually manifests itself further south like in Delray. I've seen it down here but it was small and unsurfable.
That is the best. I wish the forecast would read flat every day. The breaks would be empty because people just look as these forecasts.
Oh, hm. Okay. I think I will stop trying to understand it and just love that it happened Sunday. I still can't believe how much fun it was. Somehow it being a surprise made it that much more fun!
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