021: BEN MACARTNEY - Chief Surf Forecaster at Coastalwatch

PODCAST - SURF MASTERY

Ben has been the Head forecaster at Coastalwatch for ten years. In this episode, he explains how waves are made, what he looks for when making surf predictions, dispels some common misbeliefs about reading synoptic charts, describes some of the nuances of swells and most importantly educates us on how to find the best waves. We also talk about how secondary and tertiary swells affect the primary swell and your local break. If you have never looked at a synoptic chart, isobar map, satellite image etc, then this episode may be a little confusing (unless you are in front of google & can look up the referenced images). Below are some links to some introductory tutorials that will get you up to speed pretty quickly. Most of the references are based on Australian, and Indonesian surf.

Show Notes:

Surf Forecasting Workshop April 2017 - http://www.coastalwatch.com/surfing/21138/victoria-find-out-when-your-local-will-fire

Surf Forecast Glossary - http://www.coastalwatch.com/surfing/13106/surf-forecast-glossary

Surf Forecasting Tutorial - http://www.coastalwatch.com/surfing/forecasting-tutorials

Great Circles - http://www.coastalwatch.com/surfing/177/forecasting-tutorial-great-circles

Tropical Cyclone Winston

East Coast Low

A long stretch of fetch pointing to Indo

Thundercloud Swell June 2012

NOAA - http://www.noaa.gov/

http://www.bom.gov.au/

Coastalwatch Forecast - http://www.coastalwatch.com/surf-forecasts