In one of my recent posts I allowed myself to get carried away by 'surf forecasts' the post is here big wave surfers.... First and foremost sorry to anyone that sat and watched the Mavs 2013 contest and secondly those that took Tuesday off work to go surf big waves. Why? Well there were none to be had and Mavericks well.....
The Mavericks 2010 winner Chris Bertish following his 2nd round heat was being interviewed by the webcast team and summed up the whole event with this statement when asked about the conditions... 'it's a great day for a game of golf..' I laughed so much I nearly fell off the sofa, what a classic statement from a guy that won the Mavs contest in the largest paddle in surf for a contest to date.
However, it appears that the west coast of Ireland yet again did manage to get some good XXL waves on Monday here is the video of a nominated Billabong XXL ride love the filming.
Down south in some of the Atlantic Islands 20 foot faces were reported and I am sure Maroc was a good size too, but it appears that the swell focused soley on the Irish coastline. Which, if it had sun would be as busy as the North Shore of Oahu for sure.
As for Gower well we had some nice waves and conditions but only small in the 2 meter range, see pic below I took yesterday. The only upside was, two of us out, prob because it was minus 1, snowing and baltic!!
As for surf forecasts, I have returned to just observing the weather charts like we use to years ago when watching Mike Fish on BBC 1. The best site for this is Tony Butt's weather/surf forecast site > Old school weather charts however, do not rely on charts that are predicted to far ahead in the future, they are ok for an early warning system, but ultimately you need the storm in the water. Then when they are active you can track them via numerous sites and then via wave buoys.
Anyway, sorry for getting carried away with the thought of big waves here.. will be more conservative in the future!
Happy Surfing, Simon @ GSD
Useful sites:
surfline storm surf wind guru swell forecast xc weather
