Submitted by Dan Sura SFA

HOW WINDS WORK

When considering surfing any spot in New England, there are many considerations that should be taken into account when searching for the ideal spot.  One of the most critical is wind speed and wind direction.  While waves are the primary source of any type of wave generation in the open ocean, they are also capable of doing the exact opposite, ruining  a perfect ground swell, or blowing a swell down, or you and your board out to Nova Scotia if you are not careful. There are two basic rules of thumb to go by when considering any surf spot during the presence of winds. 

ONSHORE WINDS

The first rule of thumb to understanding winds is recognizing that onshore winds generate waves and destroy them. A wind which blows from the open sea towards shore is called an onshore wind which is pretty obvious by its name. New England waves are created in two ways, one is by moderate to heavy onshore winds, either from the south, east, and even north in spots that take it. The other way is from large ocean storms, such as low pressures which may move off the coast of North Carolina, or the long awaited hurricane swells during the summers and falls.
 

There are also other rarer wave generators such as offshore winds creating rough seas and wave propagations which cross a stream such as the gulf stream. These create waves in Floridian the winter season. A similar effect can happen on the cape as well with hard NW winds depending on how strong the gulf steam hugs the southern tip of the cape. Although surfing waves with onshore winds is not ideal, sometimes New England surfers find themselves thankful that the onshore winds have made surfable waves, particularly during the summer flat spells. If there is a lack of groundswell from an open ocean storm, local onshore winds are the only hope for wave generation. 
 

During the summers, the most common windswell is the SW windswell.The prevailing SW wind pattern is the primary source of waves for RI in the summer.These winds create rideable waves on south facing beaches in RI, and depending on the fetch and strength, they may also create wraparound windswells which bend around the cape and come in as South/Southeast swell short of Cape Ann, Mass. During the winter season, Nor'easters sweep up the coast and cause a heavy Northeast wind to blow for a day or two, accompanied by snow and icy weather. As the Nor'easter moves out to sea, the winds usually change direction, and the leftover windswell starts to clean and diminish, and the groundswell from the storm system starts to hit the coast once the storm moves out far enough. The size and durability of the swell events depends on the strength of the storm and winds associated with it, as well as the speed at which the storm moves off the coast. Ideal conditions would be a storm which creates very strong NE winds and moves out slowly and sits in the George's Bank, with light offshore winds the following day.

OFFSHORE WINDS

Just opposite of what an onshore wind does, an offshore wind is a wind which blows from land to sea.  The second rule of thumb in considering the effects of winds is to understand what an offshore wind does for surfing conditions.  Offshore winds have two effects for most New England spots.  The first is, they will clean up the surf if it is a windswell produced by local winds.  Ideally, during the summer SW swells, light northwest winds sometimes clean up the swell late in the day before dark.  The same applies for Nor'easter swells. Once the Nor'easter pulls out, usually the winds switch to offshore in most New England spots and create clean conditions.  It is important to recognize that the strength of the offshore winds is also very important.  A light offshore wind is ideal if the winds are not calm.  Winds which blow very hard often create difficult surfing conditions and cause the swell to diminish must faster.  Stronger offshore winds typically with  speeds exceeding 15-20 knots cause the waves to hold back.  They break much slower, which can also be good, depending on the spot, but with a strong wind, it is harder to drop in, and often the spray blowing off the top of the wave will blind you.  This makes dropping in almost impossible. Staying on the wave can also be a problem, especially on a smaller shortboard. The winds will tend to pull you up off the wave when doing top turns or maneuvers requiring to be at the top of the wave.  The other effect of these winds is to pull you out to sea. Surfers often sit in the lineup waiting for the sets, which come far apart in time with the presence of stronger offshore winds, and without realizing end up drifting out much farther than the takeoff zone. It is a good idea to check your distance from shore often, when waiting for the sets to arrive, so you don't end up in Iceland, or missing the next perfect set of waves. 

SIDESHORE WINDS

Side shore winds usually don't create waves and usually impact the overall shape and form of the waves you are going to surf.  These winds are sometimes unavoidable in certain spots which face a certain direction. A spot which faces east, with a wind blowing from the north is being affected by a sideshore wind.  The angle of the wind and strength are the variables which impact the quality of the wave.  Sometimes an sideshore wind will cause the wave to break much slower and from a left to right or right to left manner, at times almost mimicking a point break wave at a sandy bottom beach break.  They can also create a hollow wave, making the top of the wave throw out farther and thus creating a  tubelike wave.  Sometimes, sideshore winds create sloppy looking waves, such as the NW winds which usually create chop on top of perfect groundswell on the mid and upper part of the cape. You can almost count on there being a strong drift with a sideshore wind.  North and NW winds create very strong sideshore drifts from north to south on the cape and can at times be dangerous. You can find yourself way down the beach by yourself if you are not constantly paddling against the current to keep your place with your starting point.

CHOOSING THE OPTIMUM SURF LOCATION

There is no good way of choosing the ideal surf spot. Often it is experience which helps you choose the best spot under certain wind and swell conditions, not to mention weather itself.  Getting to the beach with blizzard conditions is sometimes as much of a challenge, as finding the best place to surf.  It is best to know your limits, and the limits of the vehicle you are driving.  In either case, there are a few hints which may guide you in finding the type of wave  you are looking for.  The first hint is, always know what the wind will be doing throughout your surf session. A wave which is onshore in one spot may be sideshore and even offshore in another spot. Knowledge of geography of the New England coast is also essential in finding the right spot.  The New England coast is quite diverse, and some spots may be located in open terrain, high dunes around, and nearby cliffs and hills. All of these have effects on how the winds behave in the nearby surf locations. Timing is critical, while the onshore winds may create the very waves you surf in the summer, the winds eventually die or switch, or both.  Finding the optimum surf spot also requires finding the optimum surf time. Typically most surfers wait for the winds to switch from onshore to offshore and surf it as soon as they can before it disappears. One of the last hints to take note of is that the bottom contour of a surf spot effects how the wave breaks. With onshore and sometimes sideshore winds, some point breaks hold the form of the wave better than the beachbreaks. The bottom reef or boulders tend to organize the wave much more than a wave breaking at a beach break which is guided by the sandbar formation.  When driving around and searching for the best wave during onshore/sideshore winds, keep in mind that some spots that face the same direction may still be better than others.

WAVES AND WIND

Those who experience the sea firsthand such as fishermen, navy and merchant navy, and surfers know the whimsical force of the sea. They respect it, in order to survive.

Many people, particularly those living very close to the margin of the sea, appear to live in ignorance. The power of the sea comes from the waves, whipped up by winds. They appear whimsical because their destructive power increases with the fourth power of wind speed, as shown in the diagram. The waves' power spectrum, the colored bell-shaped area, increases unexpectedly. The sea created by a 40 knot wind (red) is 2x2x2x2=16 times more destructive than the one arising from a 20 knot wind (green). But fortunately, it takes time for a sea to develop fully to this condition; some 24 hours in fact. Because of the Earth's rotation, winds move in circular patterns rather than straight lines, and after a while, as the weather system moves on, they cancel each other out. But once in a while, they don't.