Sky Sports News Surf Report - Why?

[HawkeyeMS]

Every now and then I happen to see the Sky Surf report for the UK and I have to ask why they bother. Just moments ago I saw the biggest report of waves I've seen yet...2 whole feet!!! The accompanying live video showed waves that looked barely big enough to wash a football to shore and that didn't start to break until practically on the beach.

Now I'm no surfer so I might be missing something but can someone explain the point of these reports?

 

[FairwayDodger]

I am a surfer although, admittedly, golf has pretty much taken over from surfing at the moment.

What you are seeing is symptomatic of surfing in the UK - you can't surf unless you get waves and they can be very hit and miss here. Worse - ideally you need the right sort of waves.... and no wind.

The sky sports surf report is more, I think, a bit of fun - it doesn't take long and it does give the sport a wee bit of publicity.

However, any serious surfer knows several websites that give far more detailed and advanced wave forecasts (eg. the wonderful "Magic Seaweed" http://magicseaweed.com/). In fact if you surf regularly in the UK you spend a significant part of your life studying these websites and are prepared to drop just about anything when the swell arrives!

So, effectively, the sky sports surf report looks daft to non-surfers and is pretty irrelevant to serious surfers.

 

[Paul_Stewart]

I was going to go on to Surf Monthly's forum and post on their own thread "Sky Sports News Ryder Cup Report - why?" but then I found out that website was actually for people who use that brand of washing detergent.