You could say the best conditions for surfing are light offshore winds with a nice long range groundswell. However that is not always the case and there are many local variations where the best surf can sometimes be caused by a local wind generated swell or a howling offshore causing super tubes. Surfing is about variables, parts that make up a whole, it is a lot more complicated than sweeping one line statements on what's best, we are all individuals and we must find delight and inspiration in all types of conditions and find out what parts make up your personal surfing smile.

To aid us in our quest technology has come up with all sorts of surf forecasting aids. Technology has opened up surfing to a new crew of travelling (and working!) surfers who can plan a trip based on a forecast or may want to book a day off in advance to go surfing. The best advice is to check www.A1surf.com links to forecasts, look for wave size, local wind speeds and directions. The forecasters tend also to give a very handy personal outlook like, '6-8ft howling south westerlies...stay at home make a roast dinner'!

Internet forecasts may sometimes take the fun out of discovering a new spot or taking a chance and being repaid by perfection. Learn to look outside every morning to determine wind direction, is the sky cloudy, misty or occluded with a wind, this could mean there may be a little wind swell running. Is their a big storm forecasted for a few days but the sky is clear and blue with little wind? These conditions indicate a high pressure system over us keeping a low pressure or storm at bay whilst the swells from the storm may already be hitting the beach.

The uneven heating of the earth causes hot air to rise in particular over the equator and/or warm water currents, cold air rushes in to replace this air. Anti clockwise (Low pressure) and clockwise (High pressure) in the Northern hemisphere and the reverse in the Southern hemisphere. Eddies are formed from different densities of air masses and the spinning of the earth on its axis or the Coriolis force. The barometric pressure in mm determines the high or low rating of a pressure system.

High pressure systems are formed by cool air descending in a clock wise manner. The cool air inhibits cloud formation and thus this is why we have good weather when we are dominated by a high pressure.

These systems suck in air from the surrounding surface high pressure systems. As the warm air rises over the colder air of the low pressure it condenses and forms clouds leading to rain or bad weather.

Isobars represent graphically areas and strength of a pressure system, the tighter the isobars are packed together the stronger the wind. Wind on the ocean causes ripples or the beginnings of swell, the longer the wind blows out to sea in the same direction determines how big the swell will be.

Swells join and group and as they travel and propagate away from the storm system start producing more regular lines of swell. The further a swell has to travel the more spaced out the swell lines, the wave period thus will be greater. Swells born out to sea can cover up to 400 km in a day.

The size of the swell is determined by the strength of wind, how long the wind blows in a certain direction and the distance over which is blows. The waves with a longer wavelength travel faster than those of a short wavelength and absorb the energy from smaller waves.

Since the 'Great Storm' of 1987, the UK has deployed a network of wavebuoys around our coasts, which provide up to the minute measurements of wave heights and directions. Moored buoys are the weather sentinels of the sea. They are deployed in the coastal and offshore waters from the western Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean around Hawaii, and from the Bering Sea to the South Pacific. NDBC's moored buoys measure and transmit barometric pressure; wind direction, speed, and gust; air and sea temperature; and wave energy spectra from which significant wave height, dominant wave period, and average wave period are derived. Even the direction of wave propagation is measured on many moored buoys.

If the waves are irregular or choppy or close together and breaking one after the other this is because these waves are caused by a shorter range or more local swell. If the sea is smooth locally and swell lines seem to appear in groups with a lulls in between this indicates a longer range swell. Either type of swell is rideable depending on where you choose to surf and what your personal preference will be.

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