Tasman Lows don't produce 'groundswells' for South Coast NSW
God, here we go again.
It might be worth remembering about now that classification systems are arbitrary. Nature generally does not divide itself up into neatly defined units for our benefit. Beyond a certain point then, on issues of classification, it is best to simply agree to disagree, since the nature of the process is such that no-one can claim to be absolutely right. Of course classification systems are only useful when they are widely accepted, which is a point the individual in the minority here might like to consider.
Bah ... tradeswell is windswell.
There's a marked difference. Windswell comes in weak unconnected peaks and waves, but the current trade-swell is much more organised and coming in straight with decent lines across most of the East Coast presently.
Bank I've been surfing the last week has turned from fun with the windswell to great with the trade-swell.
Im still waiting for the 3m groundswell which Ben promised is a very common occurrence in southern nsw. See, rare as ...
Weren't you around a few weeks ago?
Bottom line, all swell is windswell. In my understanding groundswell is a term used for a strong, long period swell train from a single source. In terms of classification I think you would have to go to the numbers, size, period and distance to define it more precisely. OldSouth is playing games if he is not willing to do that. ......and since classification is arbitrary and I don't believe there is a formal, numerical definition, everyone is right in their own universe......maybe we need groundswell and GROUNDSWELL, to distinguish events like the recent south swell from more intense events.
Ground swell is what we pretty well always get down here; long lines from Bass Strait.
Im certainly reluctant to call any of the swells we've been getting down here lately groundswell , not just based on the period value ,as some have suggested,but the characteristics of the swell and waves. No doubt at all there is a grey area where there is a transition in the nature of the swell. In the transitional state swells start to bend around outcrops n reefs a bit, and form these lines which some people use to categorize groundswell. We see this here, depending on size n direction a bit, when the period gets up about 10-12 sec. When the period gets quite a bit higher than that things get quite different, the bending becomes so much more dramatic and the shoaling looks different too. Its a stark contrast to the swells we've been getting. Sure classification is arbitrary to a small extent but my argument is about the bullshit that goes on here when mediocre situations are blown out of proportion to create a state of hype ,which obviously leads to froth and revenue from the stupid masses, and then the swarms of twits. If I really must concede that ur 1.5m 13 sec swell from NZ is a groundswell then I can really only accept that it'd be a very poor groundswell, a good swell most likely but really ,a very shit, bottom rung groundswell.
Prior to the internet age of forecasting & information overload, I always thought a groundswell was a swell generated a sufficient distance away as to be not directly related to the weather at the beach, regardless of size. Such as it's complete glass but there's waves. The size & quality being determined by the strength of the distant weather/swell source.
Long lines of 3 foot groundswell?
There's obviously a grey area where a swell is generated far away but travels with the weather and is apparent at the same time. i.e Vic west coast swells & W/NW winds. Usually then the actual swell in the water was generated days prior.
And a wind swell was a direct result of the immediate weather at the beach or close enough range for it to be apparent at the same time.
All's swell that ends Swell......
Tasman lows don't produce 'groundswells for the south coast of nsw . A 1.6m plus swell with a period of 8, 10 or even 12 sec is not a groundswell. It is crap. They look nice from the south due to smoother bathymetric transition close to shore but it's always the same, everyone running around all day looking for a spot which isn't closing out or snipping off. Also for high quality waves what is required is clean energy, This means NO other wave energy or artefacts on or in the water. So it's actually bad to have a number of swells acting. When we have a clean swell from say the Ross Sea any little bit of other swell eg East windswell will ruin it or drastically reduce the wave quality. Sometimes we see on here that there is a groundswell forecast but even better we have another 2 swell sources present. That's nonsense boys. Chances are that if the system producing swell is directly influencing our atmospheric weather then it's local and can't produce decent surf. We don't get groundswell from the bass straight nor the south tip of New Zealand . There's another reference to groundswell in the comment above, a 3m groundswell in Sydney. At that amplitude it would have to have a Hugh period well above 20 sec and taking into account shoaling and refraction it could produce waves over 8m high. I saw barrels near my place in 1992 in a swell like that which were about 8 m high with about 2 m thick lip throttling way out square. We very rarely get a 3m groundswell on the east coast. I've only seen a few and I've seen em all.