Learn how to interpret a wave report! Although it may seem complicated at first glance and you may wonder what we mean by this terminology, believe me, understanding what a wave report is is easier than it seems.
Years ago, those people who were frequent surfers were aware that in order to know if it was time to surf or if the best option was to stay at home, they had to go to the beach, there they would see if it was time to go for a swim or not. Another alternative was to delegate the responsibility to a friend, who would go to the beach and tell you about the type of waves so you could share the plan.
Today, however, times have changed and when we want to know what waves there will be, we have the resources of different websites that provide us with this useful information. There are many professionals who have been doing this type of work for years to fine-tune their technique so that the wave reports are increasingly accurate (although sometimes they may fail, be delayed or ahead of a prediction). This is where it is essential to know how to interpret everything they say in order to understand what is really happening on each beach and what we are going to find when we get there.
Where to check the status of the waves
To make this job easier for you, we are showing you a series of pages that may be of interest to you and where you can choose practically any beach, anywhere in the world, and find out what waves there are: www.windguru.esand www.surforecast.com.
¿Qué tener en cuenta para interpretar un parte de olas?
From here, in a wave report we have several aspects to take into account: wave size, wave direction, wave period, wave energy, wind speed, wind direction. They show us the changes in all these aspects by hours of the day, as well as the tide at which each beach is located by hour, so it is important to search for the wave report in Euskadi, or in Bizkaia before going surfing.
How to interpret the wave report
The first thing we need to know in order to interpret all these aspects is what orientation the beach we are interested in has. Based on this information we will be able to understand the following points, and really know if we are going to have many or few waves on the chosen beach.
Luckily, nowadays, thanks to the wave reports, we have many options to know which beach to choose, depending on whether we have big or small waves, looking for beaches that are more sheltered from the strong sea or beaches that are more exposed when the waves are small, depending on the level of surfing we have. At our surf school, we review and interpret the wave report with all our students in order to decide on one beach or another when it comes to surfing classes, depending on the level of the group.
Aprende mucho más que surfear en nuestros campamentos de surf
In our Surfcamp for adults, or in any surf camp for young people from our surf school, in addition to teaching you to surf, at Laga Surf Camp we teach you how to understand a wave report so that you can handle yourself and decide when is the best time to plan a surf trip to the Basque Country and the Urdaibai Reserve and enjoy the best waves with surf professionals such as our camp instructors and surf courses at Laga Surf Camp.
Don’t let a wave ruin your party!
