[Paddlewise] Surfing Deep Water Waves [was: Stability]

John Winters wrote:

[the following is an excerpt taken from a previous discussion re:  stability; 
I ask Winters' indulgence in pulling it out of context]

> Maintaining equilibrium speed generally requires using a fair amount of
> energy and one has to paddle pretty hard to surf non breaking waves. If you
> do not paddle you cannot surf non breaking waves. [snip]

> You may have noticed how short surfing lasts in deep water waves. Because
> waves come in different sizes moving at different speeds the large surfable
> waves resulting from the merging of two or more waves disappear as the
> faster wave moves past and the wave size diminishes right out from under
> you.

That's true enough.  

However, there is a more fundamental reason one can not surf a deep water wave
indefinitely:  the leading wave of a packet of deep water waves (aka a "wave
train") will eventually feed its energy into the wave following it.  The net
effect of this is that the packet of energy travelling as a group of deep water
waves travels at a speed smaller than the speed of an individual wave.  Check
out pages 70-73 of the 1980 version of Willard Bascom's "Waves and Beaches" for
a more complete discussion.

This means that somebody on a surf ski working his/her butt off paddling to
maintain a surfing position on a wave in the middle of a wave train will
eventually be riding on the leading wave of the train ... which will soon
diminish, leaving the paddler to seek out another large crest to ride.

I think I have noticed this effect trying to maintain a surfing position on
small stuff, too, but can't be sure of it.  Anybody else experienced that?

-- 
Dave Kruger
Astoria, OR
incompetent surfer
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