Tradewind fetches powered the explor-
ation of the oceans by both Polynesian
explorers and, later, the European
discoverers. Polynesian navigators were
the original old-school forecasters. These
navigators – particularly the highly skilled
men of knowledge from the Marshall
Islands – were the first human beings
to learn an essential truth about waves,
which is fundamental to finding and
forecasting surf.They bend when their forward speed
is slowed by changes in underwater
bathymetry – such as reefs and continental
shelves and sea mountains – and they bend
around islands and other land masses like
headlands. They also bend on larger scales,
following broad curved sweeps of the ocean
called Great Circle Paths, which reflect the
greater reality that the Earth is curved and
not flat. Understanding both of these curving
phenomena, the shorter-scale curving called
refraction and the larger global curved
movement along the Great Circle Paths, is
a massive leap forward in surf forecasting.
Truly great Polynesian navigators could
identify the presence of distant atolls of
islands beyond the visible horizon simply by
watching the reverberation of waves across
the hull of their canoe, knowing full well
that every island group in the Pacific has its
own refractive pattern that can be read with
the same ease with which a forensic scientist
would read a fingerprint.
There is a modern-day analogy here for
surf chasers. We can use the same forensic
approach to identify the patterns of swell
parameters – direction, period, size – which
turn on different surf spots along different
stretches of coastline. We often refer to
these parameters as magic numbers.WAVES BEND.
Mikey Wright loves the deep
lines of long period swell which
activate the West Australian
coastline. Because once its
activated, very shortly after
Mikey gets elevated.
PHOTO: RIDENOUR