Just general surfing stuff

[foamy]

Obviously, when they say Ballina, they are not talking the Wall, but a few hundred yards away where nobody much surfs anyway.

[Beanpole]

Maybe they are talking about inside the River. Steve going all local on GST just because he is telling him how big the surf is in front of where he lives from the other side of the world.

[Cranked]

Steve, do you know what data a wave buoy records and how that data is interpreted/processed/manipulated before being released? Serious question.

[Drailed]

Next he’ll be leaping to the defence of Pottz.

[steve shearer]

Steve, do you know what data a wave buoy records and how that data is interpreted/processed/manipulated before being released? Serious question.

Yes I do.

But more importantly I know what are the confounding/contaminating influences on the buoy data.

[Cranked]

I've thinking that to automatically adjust open ocean swell data to wave heights for a given beach/reef you would need to record a series of observations of the actual spot wave heights for that swell height, period and direction.

From those observations we could arrive at adjustment factor to convert an open ocean swell data to a particular spot's wave height for a given swell direction. As a single factor I think it would work more readily with wave energy and could also be automatically scaled to accommodate swell direction.
And thats not even taking into account the peculiarities of a particular buoy location

Do you know if any automated surf forecaster does this? It seems most unlikely.

[foamy]

Good forecasting is built on a lot of hindcasting. The magic seaweed crew probably don't get much of that so far from their home base.
Some surf cams would be a big help

[steve shearer]

Do you know if any automated surf forecaster does this? It seems most unlikely.

No, they don;'t and this is a major problem for their accuracy.

Byron Buoy, for eg is actually located due east of Ballina Bar on the 65m depth contour (about 5km off the coast).

It is extremely susceptible to wind and swell direction contamination.

If you don't understand those factors then using it as a surf height proxy for the adjacent coastline is almost useless.

[foamy]

Michael February employs a different way of duckdiving.

https://mobile.twitter.com/wsl/status/1 ... gr%5Etweet

p.s. I don't like the look of that reef.

[Cranked]

There is a big problem forecasting for Indo as there are no local buoys that I know of

[The Mighty Sunbird]

Likewise Maldives
The nearest bouy is 800 km away or something

[Nick Carroll]

Steve, do you know what data a wave buoy records and how that data is interpreted/processed/manipulated before being released? Serious question.

Yes I do.

But more importantly I know what are the confounding/contaminating influences on the buoy data.

Ha ha in this case I think Magic Seaweed invents virtual buoys, kinda like Buoyweather

For those who aren’t across this concept, a virtual buoy is a point on the sea surface where BW or MS decide to imagine a buoy is present. They then extrapolate off GFS or ECMRW data to create imaginary readings for this imaginary buoy.

What cranky is talking about, drawing off real time buoy readings to predict shoreline conditions at a range of spots, dead set that can take a fcuken lifetime of observation and even then you can be off.

Australia’s east coast is a cnut of a coast to try to forecast in the first place, 10 degrees of wind angle difference near Tasmania can change a 2’ day into a 10’ day at half the spots sth of Byron, and you never know how that angle will go till it does. Certainly some dumb arse virtual buoy 10ks offshore sucking off GFS five days in advance is about as much use as a hand-plane.

[Nick Carroll]

Oh btw trev you might see another pulse from the east around Weds, from a similar wind band associated with a cutoff low NE of NZ. It won’t be much because that low is regressing east on a Sacred Mission to destroy the Teahupoo CT, but it’ll be something.

[steve shearer]

Its the same low thats been lollygagging around the South Pac

[steve shearer]

Re virtual buoys MHL has a new hybrid product mixing wave forecasting and buoy data to produce inshore and near shore wave heights.
Havent had a chance to test it yet.

[steve shearer]

It might add useful marginal data tracking refracted S swells up the nsw coast

[Trev]

Oh btw trev you might see another pulse from the east around Weds, from a similar wind band associated with a cutoff low NE of NZ. It won’t be much because that low is regressing east on a Sacred Mission to destroy the Teahupoo CT, but it’ll be something.

The current pulse is still happening so one might morph into the other. Sounds good.

[Beanpole]

I used the Hatchcam Surf Report for Maroubra. They have a bouy at Lakemba. I find the site usually tends to over call wave sizes and use obscure measurement systems. This report was better in that it used actual human reference points but again it over called by quite a margin.

Interestingly Coastalwatch had a three star rating for The Bra and mentioned south swell while giving Bondi a two star rating and mentioning N E Swell. The Bra was a very infrequent knee to waist high crisp offshore dribble on the low tide. Twenty guys out. Saw the hint of a new southerly pulse starting to trickle into Bronte.