THE SUBTLE ART OF READING WAVES

You can have all the skills in the world, but if you're unable to read waves well then you're going to find it very difficult to improve.

The ability to tell where a wave is going to break, how it's going to break, which way its going to break, and what the wave is going to do once its broken, all help to make sure that you're in the right place at the right time more often.

The result?

You're able to catch higher quality waves, and ride out of them successfully more of the time.

WHAT EVEN MAKES A GOOD WAVE?

The type of wave that you'll classify as 'good' will depend on your level.

For a beginner a good wave is a nice small, clean whitewater. For a pro it might be double overhead and barrelling!

But for where you're at right now there are very certain things that you should be looking out for:

- Soft Breaking: This means that the waves aren't really thick, heavy and dumping. Instead you want to look for waves that are breaking softly, that don't have too much power.

- Not closing out: A closeout is a wave that breaks all at once, and these are the types of waves that you're looking to avoid. Instead, look for waves with a clear peak and a soft shoulder to surf on.

The above 👆 are really the two main things that you need to be looking for right now.

PEAK: The spot closest to the breaking part of the wave
FACE/SHOULDER: The clean, unbroken area of the wave away from the whitewater.
LIP: The part of the wave which lurches over as a wave breaks.
POCKET/CURL: The zone right next to where the breaking part of the wave, and the unbroken wave meet.
BARREL/TUBE: The area inside a breaking wave.
IMPACT ZONE: The area where the lip of the wave hits the wave trough.

WAVE DIRECTION

In surfing, we always relate to the wave direction from the perspective of riding the wave itself, rather than the perspective of the viewer from the beach.

That means, that from the beach a wave breaking left will look like this 👇

And a right-hander will look like this 👇

THE A-FRAME

An A-Frame is a wave with a clear defined peak, which breaks both left and right simultaneously.

These A-Frame waves are coveted in the surf community as they give surfers the option of riding both left and right, give you the opportunity to practice forehand and backhand surfing at the same break.

CHOOSING THE RIGHT WAVES

As a wave peaks up you'll often notice that the wave will taper slightly differently in each direction.

It's this change in the tapering of the wave that is a clue as to what the wave is likely to do when it breaks.

If a wave has a steeper tapering effect (ref image above) the wave will break down the line at a slower speed.

Likewise if the wave has a shallow taper, it will break down the line quickly and will often close out on you.

So the waves you want to select at this stage in your development are waves with a steeper taper to them, that break slowly down the line, giving you ample time to pop to your feet and set your line.

These visual cues will help you to read the oncoming waves and help you to select the right waves more often.

WRAPPING IT UP

To wrap things up here, you should be looking for soft-breaking waves - breaking either left or right - with nice big open shoulders to give you the time to pop to your feet and set your line.

But now that you know what sort of wave you should be looking for, now comes the hard part of making sure you're in the right place at the right time.

We'll be covering that in the next lessons.

THE SUBTLE ART OF READING WAVES

YOU MUST BE LOGGED IN TO ACCESS THIS COURSE

LEVEL 1 BEGINNER

GOTTA HAVE POP!

SPEED

TURNING

THE SUBTLE ART OF NEGOTIATING WAVES

PADDLING

NEXT STEPS...

LEVEL 2 PROGRESSOR

IT'S TIME TO PROGRESS...

POP-UP LIKE THE PRO'S

READING WAVES

CATCHING UNBROKEN WAVES

TURN BABY TURN

TRIMMING

NEXT STEPS...

LEVEL 3 INTERMEDIATE

THE QUICKENING

ANGLED TAKE OFF

SPEED

BOTTOM TURNS

CARVING

CUTBACKS

NEXT STEPS...