Thursday, November 7, 2013

My Trusted Buoy Is Down!!!! But All Is Not Lost!

The buoy I have come to love and trust—NDBC Station 44025—is down! Hasn't had wave height and interval, water temp, swell direction, and wind info for about a month now. It still has the five day forecast: here. This forecast is the most accurate for New York and New Jersey surfing that I've found so far (beats the heck out of Swell.info and Surfline.com and even Magicseaweed). Gives you predicted wave heights and wind directions/speed. I'm now searching around for a comparable buoy, but all I can find so far is the NY Harbor, which I'm not a fan of because the readings are so small due to the fact that it's so far in. Even when Station 44025 was functioning I still checked the forecast and have fared well with its predictions. Remember to subtract a foot or two from the predicted seas to determine actual height of waves in Long Beach and Rockaway. For example if the forecast is for 2-3 feet seas expect the waves to be 1-2 feet at the beach. Similarly if it's predicted for the seas to be 5-7 feet, expect the waves to be 3-5 feet. And so on.