Reading Tide Charts

[gavin310]

I'm trying to figure out how to get all available info out of a tide chart. Here is an example chart:

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d52/gavin310/malibu_tides.jpg

Since the tide is rising almost 5ft. on Saturday does that mean the surf will be heavy? Or can you even tell if there will be heavy surf from looking at a tide chart? What other useful info can you get from this chart (other than the obvious :Smile:)?

[boxl0bster]

haha i hope someone chimes in on this. i get pretty confused when trying to find a good tide to fish. i believe you want the wavy patterns on the tide chart to be nice and wavy but even. and depending on how high or low the tide change is that determines the amount of water that will move, from my experience ive had better bites during tides that were high and then dropped pretty low. i think it has something to do with the dramatic change in tide height moving bait/food etc... around more so more fish come out to eat? im no expert but im sure someone can answer this better. haha :Big Grin:

[Nessie Hunter]

The two are not related and normally have no affect on each other..
The TIDES can be very large on a calm Surface WAVE day and visa versa.

Waves are generated by energy at the oceans surface IE: wind, storms etc, and will travel long distances until they attenuate or loose that energy..


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_surface_wave


Ocean surface waves are surface waves (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surface_wave) that occur on the free surface (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_surface) of the ocean (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean). They usually result from wind, and are also referred to as wind waves. Some waves can travel thousands of miles before reaching land. They range in size from small ripples (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capillary_wave) to huge rogue waves (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_wave). There is little actual forward motion of individual water particles in a wave, despite the large amount of energy it may carry forward.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tide


Tides are cyclic rising and falling the of Earth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth)'s ocean (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean) surface caused by the tidal forces (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_force) of the Moon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon) and the Sun (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun) acting on the oceans.[1] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tide#cite_note-Reddy-0)[2] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tide#cite_note-Jain-1)[3] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tide#cite_note-Hubbard-2) Tides cause changes in the depth of the marine and estuarine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estuary) water bodies and produce oscillating currents known as tidal streams, making prediction of tides important for coastal navigation (see Navigation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tide#Navigation)). The strip of seashore that is submerged at high tide and exposed at low tide, the intertidal zone (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intertidal_zone), is an important ecological product of ocean tides (see Intertidal ecology (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tide#Intertidal_ecology)).
The changing tide produced at a given location is the result of the changing positions of the Moon and Sun relative to the Earth coupled with the effects of Earth rotation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coriolis_effect) and the bathymetry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathymetry) of oceans, seas and estuaries.[4] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tide#cite_note-3) Sea level measured by coastal tide gauges (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tide_gauge) may also be strongly affected by wind. More generally, tidal phenomena can occur in other systems besides the ocean, whenever a gravitational field that varies in time and space is present (see Other tides (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tide#Other_tides)).

You can also google NOAA and get some "surface wave" charts from the zillion buoy's they have positioned around the world. They also predict wave action from wind and storm locations, direction and energy generated..




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[gavin310]

Nice, thanks guys. that really helps