At 7:34 PM -0500 1/18/02, Michael Daly wrote: >From: "Kevin Whilden" <kevin_at_yourplanetearth.org> > >> > You move on a non-breaking wave because gravity pulls you downhill, >> > as you described above. In general, however, you can't sustain >> > this motion without adding some paddle power. >> >> Again, you are dead wrong. It is entirely possible to surf for hours on an >> unbroken standing wave, and surf contests generally only score points while >> the surfer is on the green part of the wave. > >Are you talking about river standing waves or non-breaking ocean waves? >I was thinking only of ocean waves (I guess I should have mentioned that.) >River waves get lots of velocity from the drops that aren't available >in an ocean wave (open ocean, let's not get into tidal stuff). > You can surf on non-breaking ocean waves without paddling. But the boat needs to do what I call "planing" otherwise there is generally too much drag. This is generally in a place where some waves are breaking and the wave I am on was breaking or will break in the future, but it is not necessary that it be actively breaking to be able to surf it. The best surfing is if you can get in the sweet spot below any breaking. It is not necessary to get a boost from the moving water in the break. You can't do it completely without paddling. Like a board surfer, you must paddle enough to get up to nearly the wave speed, but once you have caught the wave you should be able to surf in the same way a board surfer does. The picture Rob linked to is a good example. Also look at the slope of the path that surfer is following. Since he is surfing almost parallel to the wave he is descending a very gradual slope. Since he is planing the board has very little drag and very little slope is required to keep him going. Nick -- Nick Schade Guillemot Kayaks 824 Thompson St Glastonbury, CT 06033 (860) 659-8847 *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Fri Jan 18 2002 - 17:47:57 PST
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:30:49 PDT