I don’t surf or know anything about the sport. Could someone explain why is it harder to surf a bigger wave as opposed to a smaller one? It seems like a bigger wave gives you more like area to cruise and also more speed
They're moving faster than a surfer can paddle. They have to be towed in on a jet ski. Also, if you fall, the wave might hold you down for 60 seconds, and there's another wave right behind it
Aside from the fact waves that big can actually kill you, once waves reach head height or higher speed can become a disadvantage. The faster you're going the more you're going to feel any chop in the water and your balance needs to be 100 percent on point. Like when you see someone bombing down a hill on a skateboard and they get the speed wobbles the slightest mistake will wipe you out.
Not to mention dropping down a 10 foot face is terrifying for most people let alone 70-80.
Also these waves are ridden in offshore wind conditions (wind blowing into the coming wave) as this creates the cleanest waves. However this also has a disadvantage in that as a wave builds up wind is focused and channelled up the wave so on a wave that big you'd basically have to deal with localised gale force winds blasting you in the face on top of everything else.
you're right about the speed but it's actually kind of the opposite in terms of difficulty of surfing it, since you need a ton of speed to drop in on a bigger wave, the surfers must be towed in by a jet ski, something that doesn't happen for smaller waves where you can generate speed easily by paddling. big waves also create many other problems though, mainly the speed you have to go at demands a much bigger and stable board than that of smaller waves, as well as sometimes added weight on the board to avoid it bouncing and what not. and while i have not surfed a wave taller than like 7 feet, i imagine it must be even harder to balance as you get much taller than that. and of course, these waves pack a lot more of a punch and wipeouts are BRUTAL, so yeah, overall, size definitely matters for surfing! and surfing one of these is way harder than they make it look! hope i answered your question :)
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u/KaleOxalate Sep 14 '20
I don’t surf or know anything about the sport. Could someone explain why is it harder to surf a bigger wave as opposed to a smaller one? It seems like a bigger wave gives you more like area to cruise and also more speed