Yes! And don't get me started on Xmas week 1983....

Overall I believe it is always changing year to year weather patterns are a big influence but the energy is relativly there it has to line up with our local wind pattern. My experience is to have a the right boards for FL and enjoy plan trips during the Lull summer months

And, of course, it was way, way, better back in the 1960's. Don't get me started about "Labor Day".

But then, again, it is always too easy to forget the one, unchanging, truism of surfing: It is ALWAYS better where you are not.

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Dora Hates You

It is very clear that surf in Brevard Co. has changed considerably since the mid 60s or so.

So many issues:

Natural ebb and flow....Its a barrier island

Changing weather patterns: The winter low pressure systems , seldom line up as they once did.

The SE suck up followed by the low pressure off the Carolinas happens very seldom. Used to happen every week from mid December to the end of March.

Natural beach erosion and insane sand pumping have destroyed the smooth , gradually slopping beach and near shore.

Dredging at the port interrupted the natural flow of sand.
How many remember the groins at 4th St S. How many remember the poles around 25th Street S.?

How many remember houses in Cape Canaveral so close to the shore that the erosion got them?

Yes in the immortal words of Pete Dooley: "It was better back then."

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So if you are a surfer I wish you the prosperity that allows you more time to pursue the salt water dream, and the true happiness that comes from warm water, clean waves and the companionship of your fellow surfers. If you are an internet troll just spewing bs then f off.

I'm with mp. Used to get up at sunrise to check waves and surf almost every day but ever since joaquin.. time and tide!!

 

Christmas of 83 was insane!  Nothing else in my memory begins to compare to that swell.  But then the 60's and 70's are far to blurry for me to rememeber anything earlier. 

Halloween of 91 was good too, but that Christmas was bigger, and cleaner, even if it was way too heavy and bitter cold to be as fun.  Shame the biggest day of the swell was too dark and overcast for taking picutres.

Sebastian is but a shaddow of its former self, south Ponce inlet is nothing like it use to be and Blow Hole is almost non-existent today.  Even the OBX isn't all that thrilling anymore.  I do think its been a long slow downward turn in east coast surf quality overall for various reasons, but perhaps I just have the bar set too high these days, or maybe I'm just getting old.

some of the most consistent summers and winters have occurred within the past few years.

i think we all think it used to be better because we were young frothing groms frothing over waist high mush 

I couldn't agree more about the beach restoration and steep beaches and deep dropoff it ruins the quality of the wave. Down in Vero beach the beaches are so small they have no choice but to pack sand or there would'nt be a beach left in some areas during hightide. I used to be able to skim board as a kid underneath a pipe at Humiston bch and now it is completely under the sand and the water line is higher than it was back then.

I moved to Florida in 2000 and I think the waves were good until 2004 when Charley, Frances, and Jeanne came through. After those 3 hurricanes the surf in Satellite Beach was never the same through 2007 when I left. I'm sad to hear that after a decade since I've been gone it still hasn't improved.

hmmm. lets see.....Dec last year 2017 was the warmest on record since they have been keeping temp recs. Previous record was Dec 2016.  2017 was the warmest year on record with I "think" 2016 being second...All this extra heat and shorter, warmer winters is what I think is changing the patterns.  It was only 10 years ago? that Winters seemed colder and strong cold fronts would blast in with freezing temps...(and S. FL would fire)...has not been that way for a while, I "think" it is due to the rising global temps effecting jetstream, the Bermuda high and storm tracks.  BUT with every pattern there is an anomaly and that was this past March. 

Of course the beach profile changing not helped, just makes things worse.

Have not seen a refract swell at the Road with 25 degree wind chills in a long time...last snow I saw was XMAS 1989 (JAX area). In Indi we have not seen below freezing temps in a long time.  Really miss the COLD LONG winters.

 

On a side note I see this in the NWS forecast for tommorow?  They usually get swell periods spot on but 2-3 @16 secs?  keep an eye on it. NWS is the only source reporting this:

AMZ555-190830-
Sebastian Inlet to Jupiter Inlet 0-20 nm-
344 PM EDT Wed Apr 18 2018

TONIGHT
South winds 5 to 10 knots becoming southwest towards
daybreak. Seas 2 to 3 feet with a dominant period 9 seconds.
Mostly smooth on the intracoastal waters.

THURSDAY
Southwest winds 5 to 10 knots becoming south in the
afternoon. Seas 2 to 3 feet with a dominant period 16 seconds. A
light chop on the intracoastal waters.

THURSDAY NIGHT
South winds 5 to 10 knots becoming west after
midnight. Seas 2 to 3 feet with a dominant period 15 seconds.
Mostly smooth on the intracoastal waters.

i heard the more you complain, despite still being able to surf, the worse the waves get. soo sounds about right. 

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sneedeker

Oh please, noticing, acknowledging and discussinga change of pattern is not complaining. Not once has anyone posted a blatant complain on this thread. I heard ignorance is bliss though, seems like the shoe fits for you.

Edited: 04/19/2018 at 10:53 AM by Julianuribe23