Long Swell

[olddog]

Back of me holls but well cheezed off. Didn’t get a dive in at St Abbs on Saturday due to the dreaded LONG SWELL coming on at 16:00 the night before. :(

Friday the wind was facing offshore, a good sign at any location and the vis was reportedly very good for this time of year. Then the long swell hit. Surf dudes heaven. :confused:
I was asking some boaty folk what this L/S is all about and how it scuppered my plans even in favorable wind conditions.

Apparently, long swell has nowt to do with the localized wind conditions. It starts as a storm hundreds or even thousands of miles out at sea. In shore all we see are strange long lines on the waters surface. None of the choppy white horses like we see on wind induced rough sea. These lines are the massed stored energy from the distant storms. A bit like tsunamis this energy looks insignificant until it hits the shallows.
This is when we get surf dudes heaven and my face looking like a slapped bum.

Going to do me home work as apparently there are some web sites that have offshore swell readings. Try and give a weather eye to my future dive plans.

[regthing]

Going to do me home work as apparently there are some web sites that have offshore swell readings. Try and give a weather eye to my future dive plans.

Here you go mate

http://magicseaweed.com/

[Dive Tramp]

Well done olddog! Very good description of a long swell. It is quite easy to predict these yourself by having a look at the BBC Weather/Atlantic Pressure Charts for the preceding week. If there is a large change in pressure difference from one area to another out at sea and over a short period of time (that means 6-12 hours) these have the effect of pushing down on the ocean (or letting it rise up) and of course this has to be released somehow and shows up on our shores as huge wave patterns known as Long swells. There's a lot more to it but this will do for a forum page!

[olddog]

Good stuff guys, Coldringham bay just roond the corner from St Abbs

http://magicseaweed.com/Coldingham-Bay-Surf-Report/95/

[MADMAJOR]

Good information. Looks like we are entering the months of great swell
Mad major

[billy mills]

I was a surfer in a previous life. If a low pressure system passes way up north. This creates the north easterly wind direction out in the north sea this will wash out st abbs. If its big enough it will wrap round in to Coldingham.

[Midton]

May or may not be of use but the National Data Buoy Centre has a website at http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/maps/United_Kingdom.shtml where you can access recent reports from offshore weather buoys.