MLK Weekend, Sick, and the Ultimate Wave

Did you all have a good MLK weekend? It was pretty bitter cold here in New York City, the kind of cold that settles into and chills your bones. It's weird that there really hasn't been any snow in our area yet this winter. We've had a couple of quick flurries but nothing has stuck. Aside from huddling inside and trying to keep two active boys occupied over three l-o-n-g days, I managed to spend a good part of Sunday and Monday in bed, sick with a stomach bug of some sort. I think that I slept for a good 20 hours out of a 24 hour period.

We did manage to venture out one morning to the Liberty Science Center, just across the river in New Jersey. We pass by all the time on our drives to and from Ed's parents' house in South Jersey. We've just never pulled off the exit ramp to check it out. This past weekend, we finally did. And this is what greeted us when we entered into the museum...

At least if I wasn't feeling well, I was going to watch a little surf movie. Have you seen this? Yes, The Ultimate Wave Tahiti 3D is a bit cheesy and commercial (pretty much an ad for Suzuki and Quiksilver) but it was a nice escape from the cold for 20 minutes or so. Plus, when was the last time that you watched a 3D movie? The movie shows Kelly Slater hanging out with Raimana Van Bastolaer, one of Tahiti's most famous surfers, and searching for a perfect ride at Teahupo'o. I think that the most entertaining part of the movie was when Kelly and company go out and surf waves on an outrigger canoe while they wait for a good swell.

Despite the cheesiness, the movie did talk a little bit about how waves form which brought me back to my high school and college physics classes. But since learning about wave formation and surf forecasting was one of my resolutions for the year, I paid attention. I know that this is old news to many of you but it was a good refresher for me.

How waves are formed:
Waves are created by wind. Wind causes disturbances on the surface of the water by transferring energy to water. With more turbulence i.e. a storm, wavelets collide with each other, some canceling each other out and some amplifying each other, causing the wave to get bigger. As the wave gets bigger, the wind has more surface to grab a hold of, amplifying the wave more. As waves get bigger, they disperse from the storm's center into more organized swell. It's this organized swell that creates good, surfable conditions many miles away from where the swell originated.

The one thing that I had forgotten was the in a wave, the actual water molecules don't move much. It's energy that's being transferred between the water molecules which causes the wave motion. This energy travels along until it encounters an obstacle like a sandbar or a reef which stops the movement of energy at the bottom of the wave (trough) while the peak of the wave continues to travel forward at top speed. This causes the peak to rush forward, curl over and crest.

Here's a great article from Surfline on the surf mechanics of Teahupo'o. If you haven't read it, it's a pretty cool look at the conditions that have come together to create one of the most intense waves in the world.