Why every spot breaks differently: sand, reef and point

6 min read

Beach breaks

Waves break over sand bars, ridges of sand a bit off the shore. Where a bar is shallow, the wave breaks and forms a peak. Deeper gaps between bars are channels, where the water drains back out. Because sand moves, the best banks change with every big swell and every season: a corner that was perfect in March can be flat water by June.

• Wide range of waves, usually forgiving. The best place to learn.
• Inconsistent from week to week. Look at the water before you paddle, not at last month's photo.
• Sandbars need the right tide: usually mid, sometimes low.

Reef breaks

The bottom is rock or coral, so it never moves. The wave breaks in the same place every time, which makes reefs more predictable and often hollower. They also make mistakes cost more: shallow, sharp, sometimes with sea urchins. Tide matters a lot. A reef that is a metre under water at high tide can be nearly dry at low.

Point breaks

A headland sticks out into the swell. The swell bends round it (refraction) and peels along the point, often for a long distance in one direction. Rides of 200 m and more are normal at the best ones.

Drawing: Swell lines bend around a headland to line up with the shallow bottom, and the wave peels along it.

Why the same swell is big here and small there

• Swell window. Each spot faces a certain way, so it can only see swell from some directions. An island or a headland in front of it blocks other directions. The compass on a spot page shows the window.
• Refraction. Swell bends toward shallow water, so it wraps into bays and sometimes ends up smaller on the inside.
• Deep water close to shore. Where the sea floor drops away steeply nearby, like the canyon at Nazaré, there is less friction to slow the swell, and energy is focused into the spot. It is how a big swell turns into a wave several times higher than the one offshore.
• Bottom shape. A steep reef shelf makes a wave stand up fast; a long gentle bar makes it soft.

In the app: The spot guide on every page shows the swell window and the best wind and tide. "Now" under the dials shows how today's conditions compare.

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