Learn

How the sea works, which board to ride, and how to get better.

How waves work

Where surf comes from: wind, fetch and the trip to the beach: A storm far out at sea, a few days of travel, and a line of waves on your beach. What decides how big, how long and how clean.
Height, period and power: why 2 m at 14 s is not 2 m at 7 s: Wave height alone tells you very little. The period doubles or halves the energy behind it, and decides which spots come alive.
How waves break: depth, steepness and the three kinds of break: A wave is a moving shape that falls over when the water under it gets too shallow. How fast the bottom rises decides how it falls.
Why every spot breaks differently: sand, reef and point: The same swell makes a soft wave at one beach and a hollow one at the next. The bottom, the coast and the shape of the sea floor explain it.
Wind and tide: the two things that change every hour: Swell sets the size of the day. Wind and tide decide whether it is surfable, and when.
Reading a forecast and the lineup together: A checklist for deciding where to go, and what to look at in the 15 minutes before you paddle out.
Rips, rocks and what to do when something goes wrong: The few things that keep a bad moment from becoming an emergency, and the unwritten rules that keep the lineup friendly.
Choosing a board: volume, length, width and shape: What the numbers on a surfboard mean, why the volume tables disagree, and how fins and tails change how it rides.
Surf words, in plain language: The words you hear in the water and read on forecasts.