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beachwise
by Shaun Robbins

      Jacksonville and the surrounding areas might not get the best waves in the world, but we do get our fair share. Depending on the spot you choose and the conditions at the time, you can come in contact with a variety of waves up and down our coast. During my 20 plus years surfing here, I have ridden everything from big, fast waves to small, weak waves, including everything in-between. While I wouldn’t mind seeing a more consistent flow of the big, fast waves around, I must say it is nice to have the small, weak waves around as well to keep me pumped when we do get a nice swell. While welcoming small surf may sound weird to most, just think about it; when you have sub-par surf you’re left wanting any decent surf regardless of what size it is, the form of the wave, or the power it is producing. But when you have been surfing great surf for a while, you get tired of it, and you lose that desire to charge it all day long.

      I hear you now, “You’re CRAZY! I would never get tired of great surf.” Just think about the last time we had good surf for an extended period of time. Think about earlier this summer when we had surf for almost a month. Remember how stoked you were to get into the water that first day the swell came, and how you didn’t want to get out of the water until the sun went down? You might have even called in sick to work, come in a little late with salt residue still stuck to you after a dawn patrol session, or left work a little early so you could get a few more waves before the crowd came. And this was for mediocre surf. Sound vaguely familiar to you?

      Now fast forward to about a week into that wave period. That fire you had to get out there and catch every wave you could get your board on had faded a little. It wasn’t gone by any means, but it just wasn’t drop-everything-and-get-out-there strong any more. Now think back to the tail end of that month of surf when we had epic surf, the same surf that snapped my board in two. Can you picture it? Did you even surf it? Lots of people didn’t even make it out at the end of this period. “Why,” you might ask. Because they lost the fire that comes from experiencing a long wave drought. No worries if it happened to you, because it is common and happens to everyone, including the pros. Just remember; the shortage of waves we are experiencing is just added fuel to get you fired up and surfing harder when we finally do get some decent waves.


Forecasted Conditions

      There looks to be little waves coming in this weekend, but when I say little I mean little. You will need to break out your longboard for these waves. Going into the week we see much of the same as the weekend with little to no surf. Looking to the tropics, we see no sign of the high activity that was predicted to be coming this year. But don’t take my weekly word for it, call or log onto your local report daily to find out what the present conditions are for your favorite break.

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