S-SW Tuesday Locust / Whidbey

[Michael]

I was sure hoping C36 & M would have pulled the trigger with the forecast,

Hey Chris, I find the waves not that easy to ride down there. Once your inside where they break it's a very short ride until your close to the beach and back into the current from hell and shore break. So it's one or two hits then fight for your life to get back outside and back up wind.

However.......

Lots of front side opportunities up towards Deception pass.

where do you sail to get the front side riding? That would be a whole different story? I am itching to go back but a nice White Rock session was just too tempting to miss.

[Chris Klohn]

[/quote]Hey Chris, I find the waves not that easy to ride down there. Once your inside where they break it's a very short ride until your close to the beach and back into the current from hell and shore break. So it's one or two hits then fight for your life to get back outside and back up wind. [/quote]

Hi Michael,

The only things I can think of was that you hit it on an extremely high tide or the wind had just come up quickly and the swell hadn't built to any appreciable size. You might have also had a WNW wind which would almost be dead onshore.

On a normal 4.2-4.7 day down there with a mid level tide the waves typically start breaking several hundred meters offshore. The waves usually break straight onshore with the wind coming in side on from the left.

The typical setup has you reaching off the beach on a 45-50 degree angle sending you right into the faces on a port tack. The waves are normally spaced 100+ feet apart on the inside making it easy to time and pop over the whitewater. There are lots of frontside opportunities coming back in on starboard. Getting off the beach usually isn't an issue on the normal SW-WSW wind direction.

With the typical SW-WSW wind and W-WNW waves you usually find yourself half a kilometre upwind off the beach in two tacks. I normally don't ride the waves closer than 100 meters from the beach. The biggest waves start breaking and rolling in from several hundred meters offshore on the big days. It keeps you out of the shore break and gives you time to get going if you bail too.

I'm thinking you caught it on a WNW wind direction which would have been straight onshore. Those conditions suck the big one down there. It's very hard to pinch upwind and get out of the shore pound and it's all backside riding. You need a big SE-S wind, 30-40+ knots, switching to westerly to get the dream setup.

Last Tuesday had perfect wind direction, wave direction, forecast and actuals for West Beach. There was a very strong SSE wind before it clocked westerly. I think I mentioned to go a "few" times before last Tuesday

Here's a few videos I dug up to give you an idea of the wave to wind angle on a normal 4.2-4.7 day. You can see in all three videos the guys leave the beach on about a 40 degree angle relative to the shoreline. Tuesday's conditions would have been much larger and even more spaced out. The surfing video with the tiny wave is for GB

Cheers,

Chris

West Beach Front Side
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=z9NewHb9xEU

West Beach Normal Wave Angle
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=liYMDvGp0LU

West Beach Small Wave Surfing
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFY2SW0Lkfg

West Beach Windsurfing Beam Reach Angle
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8so7XPSzAyw

[C36]

Thanks for posting the videos Chris. Still think this and this (two galleries from the same day) looks like more fun.

[Chris Klohn]

Thanks for posting the videos Chris. Still think this and this (two galleries from the same day) looks like more fun.

Awesome pictures Dave!!!! The crumbling swell offshore looks huge at JR. The breaking waves on the inside are super clean but look a bit smaller then what I've seen West Beach at the end of a big day. JR definitely has West Beach beat for wind / wave angle. Some of those shots looked almost side off No matter how big the wind swell gets it still doesn't compete with that long period groundswell. I believe it was around 18-22 feet at 14 seconds at the West Entrance of Juan de Fuca Tuesday.........nice