Tiny Waves

[Night Wing]

Most of the time the waves on the upper Texas coast are small waves. Maybe 1.5'-2' in height. But there are days where we have "tiny waves". These waves are basically slow rollers and they range in height from 9"-1'. The kind of tiny slow roller waves found in the video below.

BTW, the video below is about a vacation spot in Bali (Indonesia), but this vacation spot is not the point. The point is the tiny waves where the married couple are sup surfing these waves in rented 10' x 33" sups.



Sometimes the forecasted wave height for the upper Texas coast is wrong. Instead of small to moderate wave heights, we get "tiny waves". I've found my 11'1" x 30" @ 173 liters One World can easily sup surf these waves with me and my 144 lbs (at the moment) physical weight.

When these types of waves happen, I sometimes have the entire beach to myself surfing wise since all the prone surfers are riding 6'-8' short surfboards where their volume of liters is between 70-100 liters and their boards cannot really support their weight between 175-210 lbs when these tiny waves occur.

In the next video below you can see some of the tiny slow roller waves far off the beach. This video was taken from a drone at Drum Point at Surfside, Tx so you can see these tiny waves.



Now how I do I know which of my two sups to take to the upper Texas coast so I take the right sup? I have streaming webcam links to the beaches where I sup surf and some of these beaches have webcams where there is enough light to see from houses, piers, etc; at nightime (3:00 AM) which helps me choose the right sup since it takes me between 2-2.5 hours of one way drive time to reach these beaches.

Some of these streaming webcams are below and I've chosen these since they do not need Flash since some of you on this site do not and will not use Flash.

Take note. You won't see any tiny waves (today as I type this post) since the wind is up and coming inshore from the East at 19 mph.

https://www.bolivarpeninsulatexas.com/Webcams/Sunrise-Beach

https://www.bolivarpeninsulatexas.com/Webcams/Bluewater-Beach

https://www.bolivarpeninsulatexas.com/Webcams/Crystal-Beach-Surf

https://www.galveston.com/east-beach-videocam/

[Wetstuff]

Winger...  You ch'ure that's got enough 'push'?  Lucky, you at 144, but it looks (from here) just'bout soon as you got moving - you'd drag a fin. The other thing I see ..no shoulders?!  It's straight in. Two-1/2hrs is a long drive for what I see from that drone.  You are a helluva lot closer which = faster/cheaper to what I would call a 'drooler' small wave.




Jim

[JEG]

I like tiny waves with my 14ft and you also get much longer rides than short board

[Night Wing]

Winger...  You ch'ure that's got enough 'push'?  Lucky, you at 144, but it looks (from here) just'bout soon as you got moving - you'd drag a fin.

When it comes to "push", I don't surf my 11'1" board with one single large 9" fin. I surf my long board with a 4 fin quad setup (2, 5") (2, 4"). This fin setup provides enough speed for these tiny waves combined with my board's 173 liters and my 144 lbs physical weight.

[Night Wing]

@ Wetstuff

I forgot to add this. I think you're looking at the very tiny waves that are breaking near the beach. Those are not the tiny waves I sup surf. Go back and look at the video again. Skip forward to the 1:20 time mark of the video and then resume the video.

At this time, the drone is very high in the air and it rotates around where you'll looking straight out from the beach towards the Gulf of Mexico. There you will see those tiny waves which are "not" breaking. These waves look like ripples on the water. Those are the tiny waves are I sup with my long 11'1" board. I'm usually anywhere between 200 to 300 yards out from the beach.

I also forgot to add, my 11'1" One World is a custom built board. My rails are thinned out too with a drawn in pointed nose and a narrow pin tail.

[surfercook]

If it swells, ride it! I'd take that beautiful blue TX wtaer and pristine coastline any day. Must be nice and warm.

[Scallop]

Surfin' the Gulf, I'm with you man. Any rideable wave is a good one on the Golfo to me.

I picked up a 9-6 Steeze and I'm surprised at what the thing will catch and ride out. I'm talking total ankle slappers just as good as my 11 did or better and I'm no light weight.

[JimK]

The funnest way to ride tiny waves I found is a 14Ft touring/Raceboard but I haven't dialed in SUP foiling yet
Thant could be another go to

just my 2cents
jimK
Extreme Windsurfing

[RideTheGlide]

The funnest way to ride tiny waves I found is a 14Ft touring/Raceboard but I haven't dialed in SUP foiling yet
Thant could be another go to

just my 2cents
jimK
Extreme Windsurfing

I am definitely going to be looking for the small stuff on my touring board this year and if I manage to get another board this year it will be an all around that is geared toward surfing. Waves in NC tend to be on the small side.

[Wetstuff]

No disputes, folks.  I'd dearly love a small, useful wave - and a tanker would be perfect to extract all the available energy.  I just didn't expect Wingers walk-out to be so long/far.  We can be overhead in three paces - then paddle to a bar which may be 15yds before it's overhead again.  His light weight must also be a big help. I'd love to be able to leave a 12" concrete blocks worth on the beach. 

...and, be close enough to MEX to snag some pushy stuff.


Jim

[Badger]

My JL M-12'6 loves tiny waves.   

[supsean]

Question: Is a thruster or a single fin better for tiny waves? Or twin fins?  I was thinking about taking out my 10'6" BIC (instead of my 8'9" allwave) next time the waves were tiny.

[Night Wing]

@ supsean

When viewing the first video with the married couple, it is a shame the dude gives the length and width of the boards they're surfing those tiny waves on, but he never gives the volume of liters the rented boards are and he never shows the bottom of the boards to expose the fin boxes for fin setups (single, thruster, etc).

I'm a detailed oriented guy. I don't know why people don't give all the pertinent info besides length and width of their boards when I watch YouTube videos. I'm also looking at fin setups. This is one of my "pet peeves" since I'm looking for this info.

As for me, my custom 11'1" One World has 5 fin boxes. I've never experimented with one single fin with regards to sup surfing tiny waves. Just a thruster or quad fin setup.

When it comes to sup surfing my One World, with it's thinned out rails and narrow pin tail for surfing, it likes a quad 4 fin setup (2, 5") (2, 4"). This quad fin setup generates speed even in tiny waves.

When I ordered my One World, I ordered 6 fins for it:

1, 9"
2, 5"
2, 4"
1, 2.25"

I ordered 6 fins for my 8'11" Hammer as well with the only difference being the big fin on my Hammer is (8.75"). If I was going to experiment again, I was thinking of taking off my (2, 4" fins) on my Hammer and replacing the (2, 5" fins) on my One World with the (2, 4" fins) from my Hammer.

This would give my One World a different quad 4 fin setup which would be (4, 4") and see how my One World reacts in tiny waves with regards to the board's 173 liters and my 144 lbs physical weight. This fin setup should generate even more speed........at least in theory.

If the quad (4, 4") fin setup worked well for tiny waves, then I would wait for the days where the surf is forecast to be 2'-4' waves and see how this combo works for these height waves.

But I have to wait now until the water temperature gets back into "my comfort zone" which is normally around the last week of March or the first week of April since I don't wear a wetsuit.

[TortillaSUP]

Winger...  You ch'ure that's got enough 'push'?  Lucky, you at 144, but it looks (from here) just'bout soon as you got moving - you'd drag a fin. The other thing I see ..no shoulders?!  It's straight in. Two-1/2hrs is a long drive for what I see from that drone.  You are a helluva lot closer which = faster/cheaper to what I would call a 'drooler' small wave.




Jim

In the winter, I live about 2 hours south of Matachen Bay... it’s possible to surf that glassy little wave for nearly 2 km.  The depth in the bay is about 1 meter forever. 

[Wetstuff]

T-S,  That's F'ing torture to look at that.  If something happened to my wife, I'd buy the nearest casita.   I'm glad you have such good fortune to spend winters in MEX.  Cheers.

Jim