The Science of Surfing

Another great article in the NY Times about surfing. That's two in a week! This one about the annual Big Wave competition at Mavericks close to San Francisco.

If I am completely honest, I, like many sailors, am a bit of a snob about the technical superiority of sailors over other watermen. This article showed me how misguided I was in thinking that surfing is only about physical fitness and an instinctive "oneness" with the waves. It's incredibly technical.

Some of the competitors at Mavericks wrote their own software that aggregates and processes tons of data about waves and weather to forecast how the conditions will change at Mavericks. Some even dived the reef to understand how it affects the waves.

All I ever do is hit the buttons on the GPS. I am humbled!