Top 5 Most Common Wave Motions
If you are a surfer – the most important for you is the wave. You work with it, you depend on it, you have to know the waves, learn them and be able to read the ocean to plan your surfing. So which waves are good in our sport?
The waves can be gentle and slow or the opposite – fast massive and huge, turning into barrels that surfers like so much. A character and direction of the swell, wind, the underwater topography, flows and tide influence the condition of the beach waves.
So if you are a beginner and just started to learn surfing you need spots where the waves break on the sand seabed. Such conditions are called Beach Break. For inexperienced surfers the sand bottom is the best and the most safety choice. From popular beach breaks around Taghazout there are Crocodiles, Devil’s rock, Panoramas, some of the Km spots.
If a wave breaks over a coral reef or a rocky seabed it is called Reef Break. The advantage of such kind of waves is their predictability and constancy. An experienced surfer usually can define where it will be the peak of the wave, its direction and speed. These waves are very nice to surf but dangerous at the same time cause of the reef and rocks below the water. The examples of reef breaks nearby our hostel are Tamri, Boilers, la source , some of Km spots again.
And the longest waves in the world are usually Point Breaks. It appears when a wave hits some obstacle jutting out from the coastline. It can be a rock or some point of land. After the hitting the swell starts to bend round the obstacle making perfect waves. Such waves in Morocco you can find at Hash point, Anchor point, Mysteries, Camel point sometimes.
An important factor that influences the quality of the waves is the wind. The best wind for surfing is offshore. Onshore wind blows from the ocean and makes the waves close and lose its surfable shape. Mostly wind is not a friend of surfers anyway. Windless weather makes the water surface smooth and the waves’ shape perfect.
A wave is one of the most fascinating phenomenon of the nature. And only for surfers it is something special. Only surfers can feel the wave and see its beauty. So if you want to get these heaps of emotions that waves give to surfers all around the word – start surf! Go for it!