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PETER HART – WAVE CONDITIONS DIRECTORY

One day a hero, the next day a clown – that’s the way it is in the waves … but why? In an attempt to clarify and console, Peter Hart describes how different combinations of wind and swell direction alter the nature of the challenge physically, mentally and technically.

Words  Peter Hart // Photos  Hart Photography, Rophina Yeld, JC / pwaworldtour.com & getwindsurfing.com

Asked what you imagine to be the most challenging aspect of running wave clinics, you might say it’s constantly having to repair kit or the nursing of a perma-hangover from endless post match beers. You’d be wrong. Kit is so robust that there are surprisingly few breakages these days. And beers are never a problem because wave sailing makes you very thirsty. The real challenge lies in managing expectations. In all fields of windsurfing people tend to have a tick-box mentality. “How did you get on today?”

“Rubbish. I only made 4 gybes and yesterday I did 10.” But crying into their cocktail they failed to compute that ‘today’ a 20° shift in the wind direction had doubled the size of the chop and made gybing at least four times as difficult. Using that algorithm, they’d actually improved. People are notoriously bad at relating performance to the conditions – and especially in wave-sailing where there’s an added mountain of variables.

Climb inside the heads of the keen amateur and pro as they survey the same scene before a session in the swells and you will hear two very different mental commentaries. The amateur. “Must do forward loop … must do forward loop …must do forward loop.”

The pro. “High tide – wind fluffy inshore, waves jacking up suddenly on the shelf close to the beach so timing for jumps really difficult – no time to get up to full planing speed and waves too steep for forward loops – may get in a ‘backie’ but focus on riding. Rig down a bit – wind slightly offshore so could get some cracking aerials on the inside section. Wave very steep – need tight, snappy bottom turn so twinser set-up might work best. Afternoon wind due to swing more onshore. As tide drops and water clears the inside bank, the waves will space out and get ‘slopier’ – could be great jumping.”  The amateur had a pre-set agenda that he was going to follow whichever conditions he encountered. In his mind, wind and waves equal jumps (they don’t). If you can jump surely you can do a forward? If you can’t you’re a wuss. And so due to his fixation, he suffers another failed session trying a move that was pretty much impossible given the situation.

The pro meanwhile set the agenda according to the day. His on-board computer had crunched a heap of data that left him with goals and expectations proportionate to the conditions. So coming up is a kind of wave sailing conditions directory.  Forewarned is forearmed. If you know how wind and wave combine to produce different scenarios, you’re more likely to try the right moves in the right place; make better kit choices; understand the limitations; refrain from flogging dead horses and emerge fulfilled, positive and smiling. It is a massive subject so in this the first of a two-parter, I’m going to focus (mostly) on how the wind strength over different parts of the sailing area and its direction relative to the waves influence your choices and tactics.

UNDERSTANDING WIND DIRECTION
For simplicity’s sake, we describe wind direction in terms of the shoreline – ‘onshore,’ ‘side-shore,’ ‘offshore’ etc. But what’s relevant is the wind’s direction relative to the waves and they don’t always roll in parallel to the beach (we’ll look at those situations in part 2). But for now when we say ‘side shore’ we mean across or at right angles to the waves.

Onshore and offshore
Wave-sailors and surfers talk in general terms about onshore and offshore conditions. At the mention of each, the memory bank flashes up a very different image of the sea – the former a noisy, foaming cauldron of random wedges; the latter a scene from a Hawaiian postcard – perfect clean swell lines marching in over a smooth sea; their smooth, green, translucent walls held up by the breeze before peeling steadily to rhythms of the Hula Hula girls. The latter appears more desirable but the former is what we tend to get. Like all clichés, they’re based on truth – but are flawed. You can get really clean onshore conditions and really messy offshore conditions.

Let’s start with reality.

People assume an unfulfilling day in the waves is due to their own fluctuations in mood and competence. It may be – but it’s just as likely to be down to a change in the weather.

ONSHORE WINDS
‘Onshore’ describes the direction from straight onshore to within a degree of side-shore. Within that 89° there’s a massive variance – from hideous to
fantastic. In general, the greater the angle between wind and wave direction, the more fun you have.

Really Onshore.
When you get to the water’s edge and can’t make up your mind whether to launch on port or starboard – that’s really onshore. It’s not ideal.

Getting out.
Depending on the size of the shore-break, it’s difficult to impossible. If you bear away to get going, you hit the beach. You have to launch parallel to the shore and then immediately head up to hit the waves nose first. To keep the speed up and breach the white water without being washed back is very technical.

Holding station.
For all the reasons above, it’s tricky. You get planing along the shore, make 20m upwind; then a wall of white water catches the upwind rail, washes you back in and you find yourself 200m from where you launched. As soon as you catch a wave, on purpose or not, you’re going downwind.

In really onshore winds you can’t use the wave to carry you back upwind. As soon as you catch one, you’re losing ground.

Jumps.
It’s difficult for the same reason as getting out – you have to head right up to hit the wave nose first. As you do so, you lose speed and lift, the sail closes, you get blocked over the centre-line, can’t use the feet scissor action to bear away and flop down tail first into wind and stop.

Riding
The hurdles are many – the possibilities few.

1.  As you bear down it, you’re on a very broad reach, where it’s hard to control speed and power. If the wave is big, it shelters the wind as you drop down, at which point you become mush fodder.
3. The sexy backside riding moves like the lay-down ‘snap’ off the top, are also tricky because it involves carving all the way back up the wave to point the nose at the wind. As for front-side riding, it’s a complete clew first exercise.

Kit Choice
In all wind and wave situations, your first priority has to be to get out. In direct onshore winds that means beating. It’s a constant battle against both wind and wave and the only way to win that struggle is to arm yourself with power, speed and resistance – a little extra sail, a little extra volume, bigger fin(s) and perhaps favour the earlier planing freestyle wave over the wave board.

Where you really need that power is in the shore-break where the wind is often a force lighter, so you need to rig big and for most of the session embrace the feeling of being maxed out.

To summarise
I haven’t sold it to you have I? If the wind is light and the waves closely spaced and dumping on the shore, there’s no point. Even if you manage to get out, there’s nothing to do when you get out there. But if the wind is strong and the waves are small and crumbling gently over a shallow shelving beach, you can scream up and down on the flat patches in between, hopping, popping and banking off the walls as the mood takes you. I had such a session in a 25 knot westerly at Saunton Sands last month. Was it wave sailing? Not really – but it was a lot of fun and an option if you really couldn’t find a spot with a more friendly angle. Sometimes OK for a bump and maybe a jump. The best manage to rip in Sylt but not without a heap of mishaps. It’s generally to be avoided.

Side Onshore
It’s what 90% of wave sailors encounter 90% of the time. Waves are generated and blown along by the wind. Only over big, deep open oceans do the waves roll beyond that wind and become swell.  For most, the nearest wave sailing option is to launch off shores that face the prevailing wind and sail on the waves generated by that same wind – but we select a spot on the beach where the wind strikes it at an angle. As the waves make contact with the seabed inshore, they bend in to break parallel with the beach. That small difference in wind and wave angle not only makes life a lot easier but also opens up a heap of jumping and riding possibilities.

Getting out

You have room to bear away to get planing, can sail out across the wind and hit the waves nose on. That’s the theory. However, side onshore winds tend to bend in towards the shore, making them more onshore by the beach where you launch, meaning you have to bear away more than you think. Actually how easy or hard it is to get out depends on the strength of the wind inshore, the spacing of the waves and whether they’re dumping or crumbling.

Holding station
Reaching out, you don’t have to make a violent change of direction to strike the waves nose first so there’s less chance of being caught broadside and being swept downwind back to the shore. Coming back, the power of the wave allows you to point higher than you could on the flat. The more ‘side’ there is in the ‘side-onshore’ the more you can exploit that upwind conveyor.

Jumps
The jumping capital of the world is Pozo in Gran Canaria where the wind is actually more ‘on’ than ‘side.’ It’s not the perfect direction (more ‘side’ would allow a faster, more nose-on approach) – but what makes it the capital, apart from the god-like standard of the local residents, is the strength of the wind (nuclear) and the fact it blows all the way to the beach – and so allows you to get up to full speed by the time you meet the ramps. For jumping, wind strength and consistency are FAR more important than size of wave. The waves at Pozo are nothing special. A side-on wind tends to be the jumping favourite because, blowing from the sea, there are no obstructions.

Riding
Sailing across the wind back to shore, you naturally ride the waves ‘back side’ – i.e. with your back to the wave. It’s the easiest introduction to surfing a windsurfer; just lean on the heels to carve up towards the wave; pressure the toes to carve back down. However, many get stuck on a kind of ‘just-riding-home’ plateau. It seems hard to get dynamic and throw some spray. You lose power as you bottom turn towards the wind. At the top of the wave you get blocked between an empty sail and the wave and flop back down the wave. The only way to inject some ‘snap’ is to go for the lay-down top turn where you carve hard into wind up the face, lean the rig down the slope, drop on top of it, backwind it and use that resistance to drive the tail round. It’s both technical and ballsy – but LOADS of fun. The more ‘side’ the wind, the more achievable it is. Riding downwind, ‘down-the-line,’ the surfing Holy Grail, is totally new technical ground for many. As you turn parallel with the wave, you’re already through the wind so the whole second half of the ride has to be performed clew first with your feet in the original set of straps. It’s a real test of power control, wind awareness and flexibility.

Kit choice
With jumping being the focus, you’re looking for acceleration and speed independent of the wave. Hence you choose to be powered up on either a wave or freestyle wave board. Many favour a powerful
central fin (single or with thrusters) for jumping because it offers an instant positive reaction as they drive off the tail to take off.

For riding, the main problem as you turn down-the-line is out-running the wave. That, and because wind-driven waves are often ‘slopey’ and slow, means you go for a board with a naturally tight turning circle – wider tail with perhaps a twin or tri-fin set-up (it’s a huge subject!). The turns must be snappier, less drawn out.

To summarise
Psychologically any wind with ‘on’ in the title makes you feel safer in the knowledge that along with all the other jetsam out there, at some stage you’ll end up back on the beach. Just how frustrating/joyful it is depends on how much that wind is affecting the shape and frequency of the waves. The worst onshore session I endured was in a northerly at Ho’okipa. A giant swell was interspersed with random lumps of massive wind chop. The swells were too big to encourage big jumps. You’d flop off the top and then plummet Tom and Jerry style into the void because the gusty 18 knot wind wasn’t enough to support the rig and soften the fall. As for riding, it was mostly a case of trying to outrun hotels of white water over crazy chop, under-powered on a broad reach. My fault for going out – no wonder I was alone. The best was in Kerry at Mossies in Brandon Bay where the reef refracts and cleans up the swell. In a north westerly, you can ride backside and front side across glassy, peeling faces. The swell was fast enough to allow long drawn out bottom turns or ride the lip clew first. It was technical but predictable – and being a reef break, you can take refuge on the flat waters inshore … and Spillanes Pub is but a spit away.

Easiest direction for the basics of jumping and upwind riding – but technically hard to wave ride dynamically, especially downwind. 

Directly (or nearly directly) Offshore
To say you’re wasting your time is a bit strong, but most of the time you are. As with direct onshore winds there is a very poor effort to return ratio.

Getting out.
You have to leave the beach on a run or very broad reach – extremely tricky on a sinky board and in a gusty wind.

Holding station.
Once you’re out you have to beat back. If you can’t make your small board point on or off the plane, you’re in trouble.

Jumping.
It’s nigh impossible since you have to take off way off the wind where it’s hellish difficult to control the power.

Catching a wave
You have to point to shore directly into wind so can’t generate enough speed to catch the wave. If you do, the wave is taking you straight into wind giving you power control problems.

To summarise
One morning in Tarifa I was slaloming around in the direct offshore ‘levante’ by the stadium. After a 200m I spotted a slow, lazy swell, perhaps from a super-tanker, so headed up a few degrees to catch it. I then stayed on that same wave three miles all the way to the Dos Mares Hotel. It was extraordinary – but it wasn’t so much wave sailing as speed sailing with the help of a slope. That’s the best you’re going to get. Only in small waves and strong constant winds could you do anything – there’s usually somewhere better to launch

Side Offshore
Now we’re talking. The less ‘off’ the easier it will be to get out and catch waves. Within 20° of side-shore is perfect. But as with every situation so far, so much depends on the strength and consistency of the wind and the size and regularity of the waves.

Getting out
The plus is that the waves are likely to be more ordered, arriving in sets with bigger gaps and less white water. The minus is that, having been held up by the wind, they fold with more force. The wind tends to be all over the place by the impact zone. Having travelled across land, it’s likely to be gusty anyway. It also accelerates and turns more offshore as it’s squeezed up the wave face meaning you get a blast of power from behind as you climb the lip and then drop into a huge hole on the other side. Initially catapults are a way of life. The tactic is to turn upwind up the face to soften the power.

Holding station
Relatively easy depending how much downwind riding you’re doing. If you catch a wave and head straight to the beach, you make instant ground upwind. If the waves are powerful, you can step out of the straps, park the sail and surf straight into wind back to shore. The big difference between this and dead offshore is that you can reach shore by just sailing across the wind … although not necessarily the bit you launched from.

Jumping
So much depends on the nature and exact angle of the wind. In Jericoacoara for example, it’s strong, only a few degrees offshore, the waves are small and at any one time a flock of freestylers will be contorted 30 feet in the air. It’s jumping heaven. In Punta Preta in the Cap Verdes, where the waves are big and powerful and the wind usually light and very offshore, jumping is nowhere on the agenda.

Jumping in offshore winds does catch people out. You’re often forced to take off slightly off the wind. Jumping is all about getting the nose up by momentarily depowering. That’s hard on a broad reach. You have so much speed and mastfoot pressure it’s all too easy to nose-dive. And having been squeezed up the face, the wind above the wave is often wild and unstable.

Power is hardest to control when you’re broad to the wind, so having the wind behind you on the way out through the waves is no advantage.