The problem with longer periods is often it's walled out to all hell.
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What is needed for a beachbreak to be good?
- Thread starter Northern_Shores
- Start date
What I like about windswell is it doesn't get hyped and there are peaks everywhere.
The long period NW swells here are hyped for a week before it gets here so everyone is here.
Tweaked for average East Coast beachbreak. Shoals and island/inlet spots with refraction surfed separately.
Although some of North Florida's beaches actually seem to get good shape on ESE/SE groundswells.
I love hurricane swells here.
So punchy.
Very rare
My dad was in the hospital and just had surgery.
My friend calls me and says it's pumping.
We are in the post op and I say "Mom. I got to go. There is a pumping hurricane swell."
It was too.
She got mad but got over it.
Extremely angled as well; this really helps. Top Gun beach football can become Top Gun beach breaklefts. Or something. Jennifer Connelly doing the secks unfortunately not included.
The long continental shelf beachbreaks turn to complete sh!t when that happens - agreed.
If otherwise featureless, though, what makes one random beach develop better sandbars than another? Enough medium to large swells to move sand around?
Or dig a 2m deep trench right at the shore and deposit the sand 100m out where it is too deep anyway.
So noone agrees on the tide? France has big tide, Huntington fairly big, Ocean beach SF has 5ft+, florida 3-4ft.
Very strong paddling muscles, quick/nimble entry, cajones (on the big days), love of close-outs.
Ability to pop-up quickly and get into the tube (makeable or not)
Someone to paddle out with you at with you at Point Reyes, so they can hold you when you get scared.
Submarine canyons are the key to all great beach breaks. Short period wind swell ruins my regular. I hate wind swell. When the bars are groomed, long period swells that hit the finger canyons just right are magic.
Not sure I agree with the first part entirely. North Florida has a vast continental shelf and does hilariously better on long period swells than the zones with better bathymetry to the South, as long as we're comparing beachbreak to beachbreak.
For better sandbars, I'd say angled swell and nearby sand sources.
That 2m deep trench will last a tide cycle in the Gulf. Never mind a place with waves.
North Florida's tides are more in the 5-6 foot range. Some of them are flat with an inside sand ledge, a trough/trench, and an outside sandbar, and some of them have a trough/trench right off the (steeper) sand and then a sandbar on the far side of that trench that slowly gets deeper.
IMHO most beachbreaks that don't benefit from a canyon or jetty will have tide as a contributing factor - around here I'd say it's hilariously more important than wind - but I would not say the mere existence of the word 'tide' or a small or large swing makes a beachbreak inherently good or bad.
Pascuales has a miniscule tide range. Outstanding beachbreak. New Smyrna and Mayport have larger tide ranges and are good spots for Florida. There are some beachbreaks in the North part of Central California that you noted are 4-5' tide range and those are good to outstanding beachbreaks.
You might consider a trigger warning for the many erBBers who can tell you dreamy conditions, a canyon, a jetty, and truckload after truckload of sand might still leave you with an El Porto's worth of closeouts.
What's your definition of long period, though?
True about the sand sources - the spots I am thinking about may not have a rivermouth right THERE but within a couple miles for sure.
This is where the submarine canyon helps in a big way. There's a reason that certain spots in that region actually get peakier as they get bigger.
Looks similar to the setup at BlacksThe glaring omission so far is shorter period and/or decently angled swell, or combo swell, in addition to the other factors mentioned.
