The Movement of Waves

The speed of the group of waves is 1.5 times the swell period (the number of seconds between wave crests at a fixed point). The individual waves travel twice as fast, at 3 times the swell period. For example: With a 20 second swell, the actual swell group (or sets of waves) travels at 30 knots while the individual waves will travel at 60 knots in deep water before the waves feel the ocean floor and slow down close to shore.

It's all very complicated when you start plugging the numbers into formulas and calculations to try to determine direct results. There are an infinite amount of variables. But then again, when you just think about waves, it's very fundamental. Think about a stretched out slinky refracting vibrations. Think about the waves of sunlight and sounds. Think about wind and seasons. It all makes perfect sense in a way that will make you head spin to think about any more.

Sets are something many surfers come to understand intuitively. On any given day of surfing you eventually acquire a feel for how the sets are arriving, and for how they are changing, ever so slightly, in conjunction with the tide. Between sets of waves there are lulls. Lulls can be just as important as sets by providing gaps to paddle back out through and by forcing moments of calm and strategy between the frantic scrambles for the peak.

Sets, lulls and wavelengths provide great metaphors on the way life is and the way nature operates. Most surfers intuitively absorb these lessons while they pursue their ego-based adrenaline rushes, yet some hesitate to discover the scientific explanations and realities of their sport for fear of ruining the mystic, almost religious, phenomenon that make it feel so harmonious and natural. But the truth is, discovering these answers usually serves to enhance the mystery. It sheds light on how everything is operating within the same set of principles and parameters set up by mother nature. And it shows us that we too are an essential and active element in the set that includes everything.

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