Archive for the 'Waves' Category



Seismologists say the surf’s up across the globe

When waves crash on the shore they actually create vibrations in the Earth that can be detected by seismometers and used to determine the power of the waves. Seismologists have been archiving this data from 22 locations across the world for decades. Recently, a researcher noticed a trend in the data indicating that [...]

I’d say these waves are well overhead

Earlier this month giant waves were photographed moving across the skies over Iowa. They’re a natural phenomenon called “undular bore waves”.

When you look at them on a satellite image, they kinda resemble a WWIII wave period animation.

Link

Pororoca: the world’s longest wave

Pororoca is a bore in the Amazon river that could be the world’s longest natural wave.
“Twice a year, between the months of February and March, the Atlantic Ocean waters roll up the Amazon river, in Brazil, generating the longest wave on the Earth. The phenomenon, known as the Pororoca, is caused by the tides of [...]

Montauk lighthouse vs. Alamo

I guess when they built the Montauk Point Lighthouse in 1796, the builders didn’t expect the point to slowly disappear.  Well, time has taken its toll and apparently, the lighthouse is now in danger of collapsing into the ocean unless something is done to stop the relentless waves from eroding the ground on which [...]

Kelly Slater describes some insane wave pool technology

70percent put me onto these cool videos of Perry Farrell interviewing Kelly Slater. Slater mentions some new wave pool technology that he’s licensed. It’s called Surf the Ring. So far all I’ve been able to find on the web is this one-page site that offers very little info.

It’ll be cool to see [...]

Space Coast Reef: an artificial reef for Florida

Ironically, in the surfing world Florida is known more for producing great surfers, but not great waves.  The folks in Coco Beach, FL (home of Kelly Slater) are looking to make some nice waves by installing an artificial reef.  They’re working with the same company, ASR Ltd, that designed the Mount Reef in New Zealand.  [...]

Nice waves breaking on a man-made reef in NZ

 Apparently there weren’t enough waves at the Bay of Plenty, so they had to make more.  The Kiwi’s Mount Reef project seems to be a success in terms of the quality of waves that it’s creating. "The artificial reef is designed to have a primary purpose of creating high quality surfing waves. A database showing [...]

Germans love surfing in rivers

 
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - surfers are an innovative bunch.  When there are no waves to be found, surfers find a way to improvise.  For instance, landlocked Europeans do a fair bit of surfing in rivers.
YouTube’s got several videos of river surfing in Munich.  There’s even a project called Tube6 [...]

Secret Spot

Surfrider found a pretty tasty looking point (rights AND lefts) that has likely never been surfed.  Can you guess where it is? 
 
Hint: If you wanted to score some really sick waves there, all you’d have to do is clear out some of the islands that sit about 500 miles offshore to the east (to [...]

NOAA’s New Building

Broceanographers are constantly checking surf reports for current conditions as well as forecasts for the next swell.  There are countless websites that report surf and ocean weather conditions.  Each site tries to set itself apart from all the others by focusing on specific regions, using fancy graphics, and making claims that they’ve got the most [...]

Tiny wave or giant ducks?

Our buddy, Ed, has been on a boat in the Mentawai Islands for the past 10 days, undoubtedly surrounded by incredible waves.  Ed demonstrates his broceanography skills par excellence with this little shot of perfection that he chased down somewhere off the beaten path.
 
Here’s a link to a larger version of the pic.

Time-lapse video of tide & currents at Black’s

Here’s a cool video that shows tidal movement at Black’s beach over time.
http://cil-www.coas.oregonstate.edu/ncex/blacky.c1.small.mov 

Nearshore Canyon Experiment @ Black’s

Here are a couple of links to an interesting study of the deep canyons that make the waves at Black’s so special.
http://scrippsnews.ucsd.edu/article_detail.cfm?article_num=591
http://science.whoi.edu/users/elgar/NCEX/ncex.html