How Do You Read Swells And Waves?

[steze]

Hi everybody, i was just wondering how do you read the swells and waves. Lately when i fish i usually look at the weather, temp and the winds but im not really sure how to read swells. I hate travelling out there to see big massive waves and having to go back because its too dangerous. When i click on the link on this website i dont understand any of it. Is there any websites that will display for eg, swells today are 3.0m. Just for example. If so what is regarded high and low.

Thanks,

Steve

[GregL]

G'day Steve

When looking at the swell look at sea conditions to.

If there is 2m swell with 1m sea, really thats 3m waves.

There is swell which is the solid wave, then there is sea whish is the chop on top of the swell, add them together to get a better reading.

Fishable conditions are really up to the boats/boaters ability, some feel safer in different conditions than others do.

Greg

[mushtaka]

Hey Steve, have you tried seabreez? I find that pretty good. The link is at the top of the page.

The blue is the wave height.

Mushtaka

Edited February 9, 2010 by mushtaka

[Jewhunter]

+ 1 for Seabreeze. They're rarely wrong.

The arrows indicate the swell direction & it also gives you the period in seconds between waves.

You could have a 2mtr swell with waves 10-11 secs apart & as long as the wind was down it would be a comfortable slow roll. Get a 1.5mtr swell that's 5-6 secs apart & it will be pretty uncomfortable.

Cheers,

Grant.

[cameldownunder]

Don't forget the direction

If you're at North Head, and the waves direction is South, it is less stressful then having the waves coming in from the East (which seems the case since weeks)

And at the North Head for example, your pretty protected from the North Wind (as long as your close enough to the rocks), but on the way (home for me) to the spit you might have waves coming from the Wast, wind from North (Manly) creating waves fromthe north and maybe a tide running out, which then all together makes a pretty uncomfortable run home.

And lets not forget the ..... FERRIES !!!

[steze]

Thanx for the info everyone. I understand a bit more about it. How can you tell how many seconds they are apart?. For example i tend to fish more down south of sydney and you generally need northerly winds . However sometimes i get there and my god the waves are huge. It is somewhat quite intimidating especially looking down from the top of the hill. This is why i would rather plan ahead and at least know about the waves and swells so it would be alot safer as the area i fish can be a bit dangerous at times well lately anyway.

Thanks,

Steve

[Jewhunter]

Thanx for the info everyone. I understand a bit more about it. How can you tell how many seconds they are apart?. For example i tend to fish more down south of sydney and you generally need northerly winds . However sometimes i get there and my god the waves are huge. It is somewhat quite intimidating especially looking down from the top of the hill. This is why i would rather plan ahead and at least know about the waves and swells so it would be alot safer as the area i fish can be a bit dangerous at times well lately anyway.

Thanks,

Steve

Have you looked on seabreeze yet?

It shows a graph titled "7 day wave direction & period forecast" Point your cursor on the graph & it tells you the direction & how many seconds apart the waves are.

The seabreeze link is at the top of the page!

Cheers,

Grant.

[Robbielites]

Taken from the BOM site.

* Sea waves: waves generated by the wind blowing at the time, and in the recent past, in the area of observation.

* Swell waves: waves which have travelled into the area of observation after having been generated by previous winds in other areas. These waves may travel thousands of kilometres from their origin before dying away. There may be swell present even if the wind is calm and there are no 'sea' waves.

* Wave period: the average time interval between passages of successive crests (or troughs) of waves.

* Wave Height: Generally taken as the height difference between the wave crest and the preceding trough.

* Wave Length: The mean horizontal distance between successive crests (or troughs) of a wave pattern.

[Ray R]

G'day buddy, do as other Raiders have said and check the weather sites, also use your own nous to check conditions, wind rain storms etc. I still think that an observation is warrented even when conditions are favourable, I know I have walked back to the car park many times even though the websites say otherwise no matter what, a physical 'eyes on' assessment is crutial whenever you go for either a rock fish or out in a boat..