Have never known about wind direction, which winds are favorable/unfavorable on the east coast. If any of you wise old heads can inform me that would be cool
I'll bite...anything that blows off the land toward the ocean. Seems like a joke right but I'm being serious...Places in NJ can manage with a SW, W, NW, N or a combination of a few of the above. Also the SI forecast page can give you fur ther perspective on good winds for your relative area...
Remember.....sideshore, offshore, onshore. Say it out loud sideshore.....offshore.....onshore. This is very subjective and loose way for me to describe it. Depends on many factors such as sandbar, specific swell pulse shape, size, etc. All winds are FROM that direction. Also keep in mind wind directions often chage over the course of the day especially in the summer or when a large system passes by in the colder months. Well start with East wind- choppy but can still be fun. These are the days when the waves look like large pillows of white water. If the east wind is light enough it will gently blow the wave over and kind of "help" it break sooner. If it's a hard east wind it can make the surface of the water difficult to get a good smith ride on. With E wind it's a judgement call. Can tend to be days where there are good waves just not all of them are good. Sometimes crap days sometimes good days. 2nd "best" wind direction. South wind is generally the "worst" wind. It usually crap the surf out and makes it choppy and unfavorable. Makes the water and air generally colder at the beach. Sideshore wind. North wind - As with east the wind speed is the key here. It is a sideshore wind along with south wind which can really chop it up and make it unfun/unsurfable. Favorable conditions can line up with a north wind but it can also make it skunked. 3rd "worst" wind. Also it warms the water up. Kind of a grab bag wind depending on other variables such as speed and if it is more NW or NE. Also also brings in trash from long island. Still check it but don't get your hopes up. Generally south winds kick in most days around 10ish in the summer preceeded by..... West wind - king of the winds in NJ for surfing. It is an offshore wind. It makes the water surface clean and makes the waves barrell. It can blow too hard west in the winter but for the most part if there are wAves and the wind is west. Get in the car and check it! Then there is wind speed and combination winds that are basically just wind at a diagonal angle if you were looking at a compass. Hit or miss. Like hawk heart said no wind is great or as close to none as you can get. Very light wind in any direction and your surfing. There is an infinite amount nuances that a lifetime could be spent on. My advice to you is to check the cams or get the beach and check it/surl and it should make more sense as you go. I see your in ocean city. One thing for you to keep in mind is that there is a kink in the state so it does make quite a difference in conditions because for you straight off shore is northwest because of the kink. Remember Sideshore onshore offshore
One word . Offshore. I dont really know though. If i here the words "wind direction" or "kts" in the line up I just say, "Yeah man if this wind would just lighten up!" I still really dont know what that means, everyone always agrees with me though.
you want offshore, pretty basic. in nj this is most likely a west wind, today had a west wind but today i would consider it to be a blow out. i went about 11, tide was very low and pulling out, combined with a strong offshore/ west wind it cut into the waves a lot and made it sucky, i call this a blow out
why didnt you just google this i mean come on. if this is your first time surfing ok. but you should know what clean/ruff in the ocean looks like even if you dont surf. i mean its simple though and remember hard offshores are bad too. i think everyone has experienced them 20kt plus and you cant even drop in and get blown off the wave lol. the best winds for the east coast are as everyone else said and it depends on your beach direction but they are w/nw/wnw/ /n/ nne/ in strange spots sw around hear at least and swell direction plays a big part with winds if you have a jacked up swell direction even with good winds the waves will be off. sometime i prefer straight east winds that are light.
+1 on BBP's mantra of classifying winds...not sure if he covered this but take that one step further and if you frequent 5 or so spots, know which wind direction means for each one(side/on/off)... ie/if the winds are predominantly out of the W or N that greatly determines where I end up, then furthermore if there's a southerly component with the W. I don't know if that sentence made sense. Also, know that wind is the most finicky and hard to predict piece to this whole surf predictin' thing, especially local winds which are obviously what we be talkin' about, so don't take it at face value. I've had plenty of days that were 'red' in the fu' cast* and I showed up first light to find pure glass.
Hey there Mattnjsurf, welcome to the world of surfing. Winds directions are named by the direction they blow FROM.. not the direction they blow to. So NE (northeast) winds blow FROM the north east. SW (southwest) winds blow FROM the south west..etc. The best wind direction depends on the direction your beach faces. In south jersey, most beaches face South East. So the best wind direction there is North West. When the wind is blowing directly off the land it is called "offshore wind". Offshore wind usually helps to make the best surf conditions, however, if the offshore wind is stronger than say 30 knots it can make it difficult to surf. So the very best wind is offshore, between 5 knots and 20 knots. Offshore winds prevail in the fall and winter months here in the northeast US. When the wind is blowing in the direction from the ocean to the land, it is called "onshore wind". Onshore winds are unfavorable because they make a mess out off the ocean surface making it difficult to surf. However, if you are still learning to surf, this may the best time for you to get out there and try! Onshore winds prevail in the summer months here in the northeast US. I hope that helps.
Wind is one of the most important things for surfing , Wind builds swell . side shore / onshore winds will build the swell . While side off / straight off shore will clean it up , but too much will buzzkill the swell . I kinda like light offshore winds to surf , but love the nukin side shore winds to kite surf . Downwinders galore .
