With the advent of the brilliant Trident Reviews articles, Surf Science has taken something of a back seat. Or, seeing as this is a Surf Science article – it has been on the back burner. Okay, that’s not really science-y. What about the back Bunsen burner?! No? Okay, moving on.
Just a few weeks ago, Trident Surf published this article on what can be considered too crowded surf wise. Now, instead of a straight up follow up – why not take the opportunity to apply some actual science to surf crowds?
Science doesn’t care about your feelins’.
No indeed. Science doesn’t care about how you feel when faced with a horde of surfers at a spot. Are you feeling depressed, angry, bewildered, overwhelmed, vengeful, homicidal? Science doesn’t care. Science only cares about science. Let’s try science our way into dealing with surf crowds.
The laws of energy expenditure vs. energy production.
Well, both in science terms as well as in surfing terms, we’re pretty buggered here. The act of surfing not only uses up energy, it doesn’t actually produce any. At least not in real terms, the way nature looks after itself. Yes, yes, surfing has been proven time and time again to be excellent for your physical, emotional and mental health. So yes, energy in = energy out, but this is in esoteric terms. In real terms, like for predators for example – they need to weigh up whether chasing that buffalo (and the food energy it provides) will be worth the energy it takes away in the act of hunting. A little closer to our watery home, sharks hunting seals often results in epic fails. But hunting that human? The oods are in their favour, Hunger Games style.
Moving on. Applying this in a more relevant context, the energy we consume as surfers needs to be factored into other less obvious facets of the sport. Unless the spot you mostly surf is simply across the road, and it’s always 6 foot and perfect 365 days of the year, we’ll need to move around a bit. Not so long ago, that meant using your legs for something other than a sick cutback bru. We mean walking, in case you missed the joke, you privileged solo drivers who haven’t ever smelled the interior of a public bus.
Yup, these days we’re all pretty accustomed to driving around in search of waves. (And especially, less crowded waves.) The mere fact you drove to the beach means you exuded energy (petrol – and more abstractly – time.) So, upon arriving at a decent wave and seeing a bit of a crew on it, would you drive right home? Well, a complete nincompoop might – but no, you’re more likely to drive to another spot. Less crowded hopefully.
See where we’re going with us in terms of energy spent?
Let’s say you arrive at a chosen spot. Invariably, there will be surfers on it. But just hit pause there compadre. This is Surf Science. So let’s work on a formula in determining whether a crowd is worth the wave.
How many waves would be ideal for you in a session. Ten? Twenty? Thirty? For the sake of this formula, let’s say the average surf session demands at minimum, say 15 waves for maximum enjoyment. Right. Look at the set waves. How many waves in a set. Three? Four? Five? Less? More constant? Fewer? Well pay attention and figure it out, you have a short while. Right. And how often do these sets come through; every three minutes? Every four?
Then… Crowds.
So 15 waves is the goal. You have two hours. 120 minutes. Sets of 4 waves every 5 minutes. That’s 24 sets in 2 hours, rounding down to 20 to allow anomalies (and bearing in mind there’s still bound to be inside waves). Nevertheless, 4 waves in every set means a potential of 80 set waves in your allotted two hours. With me so far?
So, if you were alone, you could potentially catch 80 waves in 2 hours, although admittedly you’d probably collapse in exhaustion around the halfway mark, unless your name is Italo Ferreira or if these waves aren’t much bigger than say 3-5 foot. Ignoring that, let’s say there’s a crowd of 20 surfers in the water, and let’s all assume they’re like Trident – decent okes that allow everyone to get a turn. So, 80 set waves divided amongst 20 surfers is 4 waves apiece. Far from the 15 we recommended. But… we mentioned anomalies such as inside waves. So let’s round up to 5 waves then.
So how to get 15 then? In this case, increase your surf time to 6 hours: 5 waves in 2 hours x 3 = 15. Okay, we’re there! Just ensure you have 6 hours to surf with the example as tabled.
Otherwise go surf somewhere else less crowded. 10 okes out? Well, suddenly your wave count for 2 hours is 10. Double that to 4 hours and you’ve got more than your 15. No go forth and apply our formula:
TIME (constant – how much time you have to surf): SET WAVES (AVERAGE OF WAVES IN A SET EVERY X minutes) divided by NUMBER OF SURFERS = HOW MANY WAVES TO EXPECT IN ALLOTTED TIME
