Tides, According to Experts (?)
Posted on Nov 22 2006
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Mondo's was epic yesterday! Nearly a full moon and the tide was around
+7. As many of you saw, it completely washed the beach away at Mondo's.
The waves were consistently shoulder high and the sunrise old-timers
were in great spirits.  I was inserting leg into wetsuit when Chris, one of the regulars, said, "Looks like your friend with the dog is the first one in the water. You guys are
die hard. That's cool."

I got to talking with him while in the parking lot and he pointed out a
few things. First, since we were there before 7am, the park patrol can
issue tickets. Didn't know that. Thought I'd share. Next, while looking
with astonishment at the size of the waves, I commented, "Crap, tide is
HIGH!" Chris explained that at high tide, the waves are going to be
best as the tide goes out. He explained that the wave height stays the
same, but you lose all that deep water toward the shore. All that deep
water causes what Celinda refers to as "liar waves," the ones that look
like they'll be really good, but once they get to you they go flat.

Another friend of mine explained that surfing is best as the tide is
coming in, but once it's in, it's crap. He's from LA and has surfed a
ton. He said, he still checks the tide table to see how much time he
has to catch good waves before it comes completely in. Interestingly,
he alleges that once you get used to it, you can actually detect the
moment when the tide starts going the other way. That is when it turns
into--as Susan puts it--"toilet bowl," which is what we experienced the
other morning at Poles. This same surfer friend, when I told him about
the conditions, said, "Oh, yeah, you got there too late. It was
probably pretty good up until then."

I've been showing up and taking what I can get, but maybe the little
tide guide should play a bigger part in all of this. That combined with
swell conditions. I just wish I knew what some of that stuff meant!!

~Jody

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