Hey all,

So I first moved here Summer 2016 and Playalinda would work with a 2ft 8second swell at almost any tide. With bigger and better swells there would be some quality waves. After matthew and now Irma, there is just this huge trough or gap between the sandbar and shore where the lines just die on almost any tide. I feel like I have check every pier and can't find anything that works even on good days. It either mushes out or is a closeout. 

How normal is this? Am I just going out on the wrong days? I am sure there are cycles for beaches, how long does it take for it to get out of a funk? 

Thanks for any wisedom y'all may have.


Also cheers for not trolling, I get it, I'm not originally from here, and I surf accordingly  

I've since moved out of the area but am a Playalinda local and yes this is verrry normal.

The most annoying thing about the break imo (pretty damn good when it's not a factor though).

Basically during late fall to early spring it's low tide only on anything 9+ seconds and yes certain boardwalks have better bottoms/sand than others (2ft @ 8 seconds sounds like a summer trade swell).

If it's wind swell you can get like a roll in type mid-break and/or shorebreak at high tide (this gets good too).

More sand should be coming soon but I'm sure Riley did a number there...

For me down in south CB Matthew and Irma were not very destructive. In fact both storms did not seem to have a negative impact on the outer bars though they did dig a bit in the middle.  In the weeks following both storms I can remember some really fun smaller days when the breaks were working pretty well, albeit slow over the middle so recovery was pretty quick.

Riley, however, with 10 ft+ @ 15-16sec for days on end with a big north push was a totally different beast here.  Things will come back but it's all dependent on the weather and swell patterns. Even though I've been tracking this for many years I still cannot seem to nail down exactly what conditions seem to rebuild the bars best, other than time between our "big" swells, but eventually they do come back.  Sometimes its a few weeks and sometimes its a month or two.  I've never seen it real bad for more than about 60 days.  All is not lost, however, since the shorepound can be fun if you dont mind a little added risk and occasionally some sand in the crack.  I use a good bit more volume when surfing the dumping shorepound to make sure I get in early and so far I've had no problems and, surprisingly, a few really fun ones over the last few weeks.

Sorry to answer about sandbars in a differnt location and not Playalinda specifically but I think the same variables, more or less, are in play.