Category: A summary of How the Waves were

After the swell has passed, a brief description of where I surfed, or what I saw

Big Swell Surf report Thursday night and surf forecast (7:30 Pm) for Cape Canaveral n Cocoa Beach (posted 05/12/11)

by oldwaverider, posted in A summary of How the Waves were, All The People and the Surfers, Brevard Huge Swell and Hurricane Photos, Brevard Surf Predictions Cape Canaveral, Cocoa Beach and Satellite Beach

Friday's 7 Am swell period chart. Compliments of magicseaweed.com
Friday's 7 Am swell period chart. Compliments of magicseaweed.com

This is one powerful swell!

It’s going to be building too, all day Friday and even throughout Friday night until just before daybreak Saturday. But that’s not why I’m saying it’s powerful.

The period of the swell is pushing between 11 and 14 seconds between the beach and the 120.    Then you might say,  oh crap,  an 11 or 12 second period swell for us is all closeouts.  Well you’d be wrong!  Just kidding with the intensity.  But you would be wrong 🙂  The quality of the low pressure system is what makes or breaks the swell, and it does help if you surf one of our reef breaks that can hold it better when it gets hollow.

This swell has a fairly uniform set of period bands in it.  Not anything as good as the Nov. 14th, 2010 swell (see the 2 links below) with perfect waves, but……….when I looked at the rock breaks in Satellite Beach today,  even with the onshore winds in the 10 to 15 mph range, there was some sweet shoulders holding up, so imagine a South wind break with a quality swell.  After looking at the Satellite Rock break, then I looked at 2nd light and O’club, and then a block south of 16th street, and the beach breaks were not holding up well, were at least a foot or two smaller.

Saturday morning 7 Am swell period chart for May 14, 2011. Compliments of magicseaweed.com
Saturday morning 7 Am swell period chart for May 14, 2011. Compliments of magicseaweed.com

Alright,  I’m long-winded 😉   Friday morning rock breaks south of 2nd light should be solid head high waves, with 5 to 7 mph South winds, but I believe we could see a little SSW or with a gift from above possibly SW until 8 Am or so.   These waves have lots of power, and are very hollow.

Saturday morning,  I see the swell being a foot bigger at the daybreak,  very possibly a foot overhead on the huge sets, with SW winds at daybreak, hollow, plenty of makeable waves and some sweet barrells.   If you have a camera, bring it.    The drift will probably be gone by Saturday too.   The tides are perfect.  Friday high tide is around 4:15 Am,  and as you know high going low is best for us.    So get out by 6:30 or 7 at the latest Friday to catch the slight offshore wind window.

Saturday,  High is at 5:20 so anytime after 7:30 should rock!   Unless the storm suddenly moves, Saturday should be epic.   For 3 or 4 days straight, the models have been showing SW winds for Saturday,  so I would bet $ 20 that it will be SW till at least 10, and probably pushing till past 12.  Strange thing is,  I don’t think it will hit 8 feet at the 120 buoy, I believe more like 7 feet Friday night, and yet we could have 7 foot face waves Saturday morning before the swell starts dropping a little in the afternoon Saturday.

Take a look at the swell period chart (the first image) for 7 Am Friday morning, and notice the fairly uniform period bands, instead of little dots of color all over the place, it is one solid blue with the mega period coming in late Friday nite for Saturday morning.  The next pic is Saturday morning which is getting to 75 % of perfect storm.  (Nov. 14th was thee perfect storm)  The last picture was from today with plenty of power but the wrong winds, and the swell was still coming in even though the period was high.

Thursday morning (today's) swell period chart at 7 Am. Compliments of magicseaweed.com
Thursday morning (today's) swell period chart at 7 Am. Compliments of magicseaweed.com

Today,  it was thigh high at the end of Johnson with onshore winds but some fun drops, some shoulders and a little power.    I saw Scooter get an awesome and long left, and his wife got are really long, to the beach right.

Saturday morning is almost a perfect storm but not quite.  Not like Nov. 14th, 2010.  Go back and take a look at the pictures from Satellite Beach on that day, and look at the swell period chart I placed there I think the day before.   It was a bigger swell,  but they are similar in their perfection.

Okay, have a great Friday sesh,  and have really mega-sesh on Saturday, God willing he keeps the conditions on target.

Later,

oldwaverider

Shuttle Launch, How the Waves were, Surf report Friday afternoon and surf forecast (5:00 Pm) for Cape Canaveral n Cocoa Beach (posted 04/29/11)

by oldwaverider, posted in A summary of How the Waves were, Brevard Surf Predictions Cape Canaveral, Cocoa Beach and Satellite Beach, Local Events in Canaveral or Cocoa Beach

Thursday morning (4/28) the waves were a lot of fun, moderate south winds (10 to 12 mph) at our break a 1/2 mile south of 2nd light.  Shoulder high and occasionally larger drops, with chest high shoulders, rights and lefts working, but most were only about 50 yard rides on a long board.  Plenty of chances to get pitched 🙂 But they had some great punch to them with some great fast walls to work until they closed out.  3 of us out, around 7:30 till 10, All to our selves.  Great session.

Friday morning at Hightowers, it was thigh high perfect glass in texture but close-outs after 50 yards or so.  20 minutes after I got out,  the storm from east and north hit and totally blew out the waves,  oh well 😉

We have additional wind swell coming in Saturday thru Monday am in the chest to shoulder high range down south and a little smaller at the Cape, and it appears to hang around a day or two after that.  Don’t expect any glass for the next 5 days,  but there should be plenty of waves to paddle into anyhow.   Hey, we usually start the flat season now so get excited that we have waves.

When we see a window of offshore winds we’ll let ya know.

Sorry, no pics for now 😦

Oh, and sorry, the Shuttle Launch got scrubbed and is now on tentative for Sunday 5/1 some time.

oldwaverider

Surf report Wednesday night plus How the Waves were on Monday night, and surf forecast (9:00 Pm) for Cape Canaveral n Cocoa Beach (posted 04/27/11)

by oldwaverider, posted in A summary of How the Waves were, Brevard Surf Predictions Cape Canaveral, Cocoa Beach and Satellite Beach

Monday night at Hangers, chest to shoulder high with head high drops,  paddled out at 5:15,  caught one shoulder to head high drop,  (about 150 yard paddle out), and that puppy took me all the way to the beach and I came in.  Which all sessions were like that.  I went home after that.  Yeah, it was 15 plus mph se winds but the shoulders were holding up for lefts and rights.  Great sesh.

Thursday morning ought to be waist to chest high down south,  looks like the winds changed to south (originally weather.com showed ssw for the first 3 hours of daybreak) at 10 to 14 mph until 10ish.    The breaks from O’ Club south have 6 degrees or more offshore winds when out of the south.

If you go down to Spanish House or Sebastian, the angle of direct south winds provides 26 degree offshore, and Playalinda would be 32 degrees offshore with south winds but, oops…………….Playalinda closed with the hopeful shuttle launch.

Okay,  the swell may drop a little but not much for Friday morning, and the winds should be WNW at daybreak, and turning NNW until 10 am, and then by 11 am or later it turns North and then NE.

Get out by 7:30 or 8 on Thursday right at mid-tide, with high (5 am)  going low, which is best for us.

Friday Am, get out by 8 also, otherwise you lose the offshore glass.

Have a great sesh.

oldwaverider

How the Waves Were, Easter Surf Fest Contest and Surf report, Sunday morning (Easter) surf forecast (5:30 Am) for Cape Canaveral n Cocoa Beach (posted 04/24/11)

by oldwaverider, posted in A summary of How the Waves were, Brevard Surf Predictions Cape Canaveral, Cocoa Beach and Satellite Beach, Local Events in Canaveral or Cocoa Beach, Peace of Mind, Anxiety Reduction, Spiritual (risky)

Easter Bunny with Eggs
Easter Bunny with Eggs

The first size of the swell was Thursday, and We were fortunate enough to catch the dawn patrol session (close to dawn:) , South of 2nd light.  It was wait wait wait, until 7:40 ish, and then some chest high glass or semi-glass with plenty of power.

Winds were offshore for awhile, lefts and rights were working.  Four of us in the water only, what a great session!

For Sunday;  the 120 buoy has been pushing 5.5 to 6.5 feet at around 10 seconds now for about 24 hours, ESE winds bringing it in,  so I believe we’ll seem some shoulder high waves down south, and some chest high sets at the Pier and Shephard Park.

If you can catch it, 1 hour after full high tide, and any time for 3 or 4 hours after that, even with the on shore winds at 10 to 15 mph plus,  you’ll catch some long workable left or right shoulders.

We should have waves for the next few days, no offshore winds in sight,  but like I said, catching it high going low, will give you an easy paddle out, and clean shoulders with totally workable walls.

Enjoy the last day of the Easter Surf Fest, lots of good food, great scenery, bonding and all that stuff.

I hope you can catch an Easter Sunrise Service,  our Pastor Greg Le Sieur from Christ Lutheran Church will be at the Shephard Park Sunrise Service starting around 6:45 Am.

Hope to see ya out there!   HAPPY EASTER!

oldwaverider

How the Waves were plus Billabong XXL Nominees 2011 … n Surf report, Friday noon surf forecast (12:00 Pm) for Cape Canaveral n Cocoa Beach (posted 04/08/11)

by oldwaverider, posted in A summary of How the Waves were, Brevard Surf Predictions Cape Canaveral, Cocoa Beach and Satellite Beach, Miscellaneous Videos, galleries, etc., World Big Wave Events and Articles

2011 Billabong XXL Award nominees. from MSW on Vimeo.

Today, Friday, 8:30 to 10 Am, the waves were insanely fun just past 2nd light.  Thigh to waist high,  light offshore winds SW 3 mph,  and the lefts especially were pitching hard enough to make you work to stay ahead.  IT WAS SO CLOSE TO A LITTLE GROUND SWELL, THE LINES WERE FAIRLY LONG, I THINK I’LL CALL IT A GROUND/PEAK WINDSWELL!!

Very few closeouts or very few unmakeable waves.  Breaking outside and all the way to the sand without bumping a rock , probably just a board length or two shy of football field long rides.

And………….. Only 2 of us out,   NO WETSUITS!!!!!!!!!!!!   Yeehawww!

Anyhow,  Saturday and Sunday report, forecast ,  guess, ha, whatever, still looks good for the small incoming possible ground swell still.   As I just looked, the 120 buoy will continue to build throughout today and tonight,  so I believe we will have some waist high plus waves down south (maybe a stomach high set every now and then 🙂

The winds should be light offshore Saturday morn, in the 5 to 6 mph WSW range at daybreak, and rolling around to NNW by 11 ish.  Sunday,  the swell may be stronger but smaller, but WNW winds light, turning North by noon, at least for Satellite Beach.

It was so fun today, and the swell was only 4 feet at 9 seconds at midnight last nite at the 120, and showed 2 foot at 8 seconds at the 20 mile, but it had plenty of punch and long rides today.

Enjoy Saturday Am and get out there early.  Low tide is around 6:30,  so from 7:00 till 10 it should be getting better till the onshores get on it.

Billabong XXL Videos,  you know I can’t live without em,  so I had to place this one in, for the highlites of 2011.  Thanks to magicseaweed.com for placing this one on Vimeo and their site, Enjoy!

Have a great weekend and surf sesh.

oldwaverider



Surf report, Wednesday morning surf forecast (7:00 Am) for Cape Canaveral n Cocoa Beach (posted 04/05/11)

by oldwaverider, posted in A summary of How the Waves were, Brevard Surf Predictions Cape Canaveral, Cocoa Beach and Satellite Beach, Peace of Mind, Anxiety Reduction, Spiritual (risky)

Saturday 7AM moving swell period chart showing possible weak groundswell strength compliments of magicseaweed.com for Cocoa Beach. The consistent medium blue color depicts a 9 to 10 second period swell.
Saturday 7AM moving swell period chart showing possible weak groundswell strength compliments of magicseaweed.com for Cocoa Beach. The consistent medium blue color depicts a 9 to 10 second period swell.

Okay, we do appear to be having a week coming up of small ‘potential’ ground swell surf…

The incoming “windswell”  coming in late today, which we hope will become ground swell as it continues to roll in Friday may provide us some waist to chest high waves , sometime late Thursday, with offshore winds Saturday morning and possible offshore winds Sunday morning.

By Thursday nite,  I should have a more accurate reading of the winds for Saturday morning, along with how strong the swell is out by the 120 mile buoy.

At least we should have some ridable waves for a number of days,  when you catch it during the right tides.

I did catch some ridable wind swell semi-glass Tuesday afternoon here at The Cape,  right after the thunderstorms passed over,  knee to thigh high,  but more power than I would have expected for a 5 to 6 second period wind swell.

Follow us closely in the next couple days and we hope to have a positive report of what’s to come.  The moving period chart is here, if you would like to see the animation of the chart at magicseaweed.com.

Until then, have a great mid-week Wednesday,  and if you want an hour of peace and forgiveness, check out Christ Lutheran Church tonight at 7 Pm to here about the last 7 words of Jesus Christ as he was dying on the cross.

Shalom 🙂

oldwaverider

How the Surf was, Tuesday 3/22 morning surf at Satellite Beach (posted 03/24/11)

by oldwaverider, posted in A summary of How the Waves were, Brevard Surf Predictions Cape Canaveral, Cocoa Beach and Satellite Beach, Brevard Surfing Photos - general swells

Tuesday dawn patrol had similar surf quality as this pic which was taken in Brevard by gulfster.com on 3/29/10.
Tuesday dawn patrol had similar surf quality as this pic which was taken in Brevard by gulfster.com on 3/29/10.

The surf at Hightower’s in Satellite Beach was stomach high, offshore winds, great  form lefts and rights, and even some barrellage to it.

I had the water to myself until 7:20 Am and then it was just myself and another guy until 8:20 when I left the water.

The winds were around 5-6 mph WSW.

Great session, and no wetsuit.  Double rashguards only!

Incoming wind swell Tuesday night.  Doesn’t look to big or strong but hey, it may bring something rideable!

Gulfster.com had the photo at left in their fantastic photo gallery of Brevard East Coast waves, arranged by date.  Check it out. This photo was from Satellite Beach on 3/29/10.

I want to post your local pictures online so please call me or email me if you have some pictures or videos for Johnson Avenue Surfers.  Thanks.

Have a great day!

oldwaverider

Surf report, Saturday night surf forecast (9:30 Pm) for Cape Canaveral n Cocoa Beach (posted 02/26/11)

by oldwaverider, posted in A summary of How the Waves were, Brevard Surf Predictions Cape Canaveral, Cocoa Beach and Satellite Beach

7 Day surf chart shows Wednesday incoming swell, compliments, magicseaweed.com
7 Day surf chart shows Wednesday incoming swell, compliments, magicseaweed.com

Wednesday morning, the 2nd of March, we have a decent size wind swell blowing in the 3 to 4 foot range. But Thursday afternoon,  a secondary swell or a secondary part of the original swell, really hammers in, and then keeps rolling in thru Saturday or Sunday in the 6 to 8 foot range at around 8 seconds, maybe even 9 seconds.

Thursday night, the swell chart starts to catch up with the wave chart meaning, some strength starts to show, but the real punch of the wind swell is by Saturday morning-afternoon.

This swell looks so close to being a ground swell, that we’ll just have to see if any serious lines show up late Friday or Saturday morning.

It’s too early to tell if and when we’ll have some offshore winds, but right now the guess is for Sunday.

Okay, backing up a few days, here are some comments about the small swell we had Thursday and Friday.

Hind-site,  I guess we should have said something about the Thursday-Friday swell that was upon us.

Thursday I surfed some fun thigh to waist high waves at Hangers, not glassy but very clean.  Many 50 to 100 yard rides were to be had on long boards.  Almost all lefts, pretty fun.

I was surfing with Rob, a guy visiting from Newport Beach, and we just alternated waves with plenty of spectators on the beach.  Yeah we kooked ocassionally,  when you’re over 45 you are allowed to kook.  But great session.  Enjoy the trip back to Newport Beach Rob.

Newport was a great place to surf back when Cliff (an old high school buddy) and I drove out to California in 1979, ouch!

Friday,  the rock breaks weren’t really happening at 10 Am yet, so I checked on O’Club, and it was going off.  Five people out on the North end,  so me and Eric, a clammer tradesmen I met before heading out, we went to the south end, and caught a whole bunch of awesome lefts.   Most of the lefts, you caught out side and rode a totally workable wall all the way to the beach without hardly any closeouts.   70 to 100 yards plus !

The sets were a lot of chest high glassy with 15 – 20 mph SSW winds on it, so some serious texture was to be had, but man, the lefts were going off totally.   It was a normal footers chance to work a bunch of lefts, and that’s all we did. Incredible session.   The current was semi-strong so we had to paddle a bit, and do a walk back south from time to time, but the paddle out was easy.

We’ll keep you updated on the incoming wind swell which looks to have some good size to it.

Later,

oldwaverider 🙂

Surf report, Friday afternoon surf forecast (4:30 Pm) for Cape Canaveral n Cocoa Beach (posted 02/18/11)

by oldwaverider, posted in A summary of How the Waves were, Brevard Surf Predictions Cape Canaveral, Cocoa Beach and Satellite Beach

Two converging swells Saturday 9 Am, 3.6 feet at 10 seconds, the top one actually arrives late Sunday. Magicseaweed.com
Two converging swells Saturday 9 Am, 3.6 feet at 10 seconds, the top one actually arrives late Sunday. Magicseaweed.com

Well my apologies for over estimating swell size for Friday.  We did get the overhead waves down South on Thursday, but not today.

My guess Saturday morning, is fun waist-high waves  early morning with 4 to 6 mph NW winds until 10 Am down south.  At the Cape,  I suspect barely rideable.

Today, at Hightowers was waist to stomach and semi-glassy,  but since it was high tide when I had to go out,  it was fairly weak in power (8 to 9 am).  Long board only for sure.  The short boarders just didn’t look like it was to fun for them.

I was pushing to get out early this morn, to catch the offshore winds, but it didn’t matter,  hindsight I would have waited till mid-tide (right at 10:30) to paddle out down south.

At Johnson Ave.,   Dr. John got a couple of nice rides, a really nice left while I was watching, but our size here was knee-high with maybe an ocassional  thigh high.

Saturday,  we do have a converging Nor’easter coming to meet the easterly swell that may make a push on the swell we’ve had the last 2 days, and it looks like two 3.7 foot 10 second swells hitting the nearshore buoy.  So maybe it will be chest high down South, but as weak as this easterly swell is,  I’m not to optimistic.   The new swell comes in late Sunday and full strength Sunday night , early Monday Am.  Monday morning looks like chest high potential with off shore winds probable out of the SW.

Enjoy what we do have, cause it’s sure better than flatness 🙂

Have a great weekend!

oldwaverider

How the waves were Tuesday (1/18) afternoon, and Sunday (1/16) dawn patrol for Cape Canaveral n Cocoa Beach (posted Wednesday morning 1/19/11)

by oldwaverider, posted in A summary of How the Waves were

Larger Outside sets were waist high, fun thigh high wave for this 2nd week of Dec. 2010 surf session at Hangers.
Larger Outside sets were waist high, fun thigh high wave for this 2nd week of Dec. 2010 surf session at Hangers.

Tuesday (1/18) was really fun at O’Club. It didn’t look ridable at the end of Johnson Ave., but at 12 Pm, I could see that it was perfect 1 foot glass at Johnson, which meant knee to thigh high glass toward Satellite Beach.  And it was!

I laughed my butt off, when I saw like 12 or so guys out (mostly short-boarders), and 2nd light parking lot was full!
Anyhow,  I had 4 or 5 really fun rides, and every other one was a nice long ride with totally carve-able walls.  The guy I was surfing with, was riding a 6’1 fish, and was getting 4, 5 cutbacks off his waves, riding many all the way in.  And it was breaking outside surprisingly.  He got like 15 rides in the hour and 20 minutes we were out.

Sunday was really fun at Hightowers, (my buddies I tried to get to head down for a South session with me, laughed at me, cause the Port and Pier cams, and 2nd light cams weren’t showing anything 🙂  but the sets were thigh to many waist high waves, (the bigger set wave drops were chest high, just to paint a picture for you).  As I mentioned on Friday (1/14) Friday report,  because the NE swell angle was pretty steep, the Cape and the Pier would probably be blocked out. And it definitely was.   Saturday report also for Sunday.

When I checked the pier, Sunday Am, at 7:15, it was perfect glass with NW winds, very small,  not ridable and no-one out.

It wasn’t perfect glass at Hightowers, but semi-glass, because the NNW to NW winds are not the best for a South wind break.

It was a ball for 40 minutes,  but then the arthritus set in, and I was a slug with no spring for the next hour,  then I headed home.   Those 40 minutes were well worth the session 🙂

Later,

oldwaverider