Coastalwatch posted a question the other day, how many times in your life have you checked the surf??

For me I reckon before I was say 14 maybe 1 a week average,
After that I'd say stepped up to at least 3 till 17, then I'm going to say 300 a year for the next 11, sometimes two, three times a day, I lived the street near the beach so every time I went out it was a surf check. 300 is probably conservative..
Then back to 3 for a few years than I reckon back up to the old level

So the number I reckon is somewhere around... Hang on calculator needed



About 5,500 - 6000 in 34 years Or average of around 160 a year... ****, that's a lot of sitting on the steps watching the surf.

Ted And Simondo will be all over Math's on this one...

So what's your number..

I can not even remember the number of beers I had last night But yes I often the check the surf 3 times a day. In recent years I have had a lot more work life balance happening so that has been relatively easy. In my previous life working 70 odd hours a week I was checking it only on w/e's and hated missing it through the week. I lived in London for 5 yrs and only got to check occasionally and surfed even less frequently sadly. Watched lots of football though

Does Coastalwatch checks count?

These days I can check Coastalwatch.com.au and get a really good idea for what is going on... tides, wind, general visual, plus another site or two for confirmation on swell size...

Coastalwatch and Swellnet are pretty farking "loose" on wave size calls. Especially if they only watch for 7 minutes, and miss out on some good set action... I have 2 other sites which gives me a good idea... In fact I like it when Swellnet calls 0.5-1 foot, and my other site is telling me 1-1.5m SW swell. Heaps of crew use Swellnet, and write it off. But I know there will be a feed of shoulder height waves on offer for the patient surfers.

Simondo - how accurate are the swellnet ratings down your way? I often have to laugh at ours. Whoever does ours called 1-2ft clean offshore conditions 6 out of 10 the other day. It seems that the range they use is heavily skewed towards the beginners side of the equation. Other times when its absolutely smoking they give it a 7 or 8. I would be giving it a 9 or 10. This winter we have had probably 7 - 10 days that I would rate 10/10 and probably another 15 or 20 between 8 and 9.

^ Do you use Newcastle? Or central coast?

What day was a 6 Wed?

I reckon up here the swellnet guy is better than Coastalwatch guy.

And sorry Simondo, net checks don't count.

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SP said...

^ Do you use Newcastle? Or central coast?

What day was a 6 Wed?

Central coast - it looks like the guy who does it might be at catho from some of his pics.....

Here is the one for today - I was at the beach as the sun came up

"A sunny start to the day with some clean 1 foot waves coming from the ENE, light WSW winds still making the surf quite clean but also very cold."

He gave this a 3/10.....now in my opinion its not surf able = which means that it should be a zero or 1 tops..yes conditions are nice but if you can not catch a wave because there are none how can it be a 3?

I generally go to surf-forcast.com, find it gives pretty good results.

Yep Ted same as our today, 3/10 and hardly surfable, I actually don't even look at the rating for the reason you said.