Episode 8 of the podcast discusses surf forecasting, the surfing culture in South Beach, and local issues such as kite surfing regulations on Miami Beach. Chris talks about Brad making ‘killer’ tacos, and we chat about the younger generation’s approach to surfing and life. Also, we highlight the importance of water quality monitoring by the Surfrider Foundation.
Find Season 1 Episode 8 on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and ThankYouSurfing.com
Tune in and stay stoked! 🤙
This episode includes:
Weekly Local Happenings
- Kite Surfing and the City of Miami Beach
- Surfrider Foundation – Miami’s Blue Water Task Force at F1RST Shop
Surf Report/Forecast
- Cold Front Swell
- Mega Swell
South Beach: Surfing’s Unicorn
- Kids These Days
Timecodes
00:00 Introduction
01:54 Weekly Happenings in Surfing
02:48 Upcoming Events and Tacos
05:08 Kite Surfing in Miami Beach
09:06 Water Quality Testing Initiative
12:45 Surf Forecasting Insights
21:59 Cold Front Swell and Wind Conditions
23:49 Forecasting the Weekend Waves
27:01 South Beach: The Surfing Unicorn
31:49 The Excitement of Surf Forecasting
36:21 The Impact of Millennials and Gen Z
39:49 The Future of Surf Culture
46:38 Conclusion and Community Vibes
Transcript
Chris: [00:00:00] And we are live. Live back at it again. We are here.
Brad: And your faces
Chris: again,
Brad: kind of
Chris: like I’m dark, dark. I, I, I know I got tanned, but, oh, there we go. Better. You know what? Finally getting a little closer, we get a little white. There we go. Yeah. Like lighting. Where are you? Jesus makeup.
Brad: Oh, I think that was worse.
Oh, no, that’s not good.
Chris: All right, well, hello everyone. It’s Bradley. Well, it starts to get the lighting kind of figured out here. Yeah, it’s good enough. Welcome back. Yeah, it’s Friday. It is Friday, March 2nd. I’m gonna get this date right. It’s March 2nd. You’re getting it today. It’s not Thanksgiving or Valentine’s Day.
No longer. Two dates are throw me off always for some reason and make me hungry for whatever.
Brad: But, you know, hey, um, what are we, this is episode number eight. Eight. That means that we have done [00:01:00] this eight weeks in a row. That’s two months. Two months.
Chris: Two months that we’ve been boring. You guys. I’m just kidding.
You guys know, we’re so funny. We’re the best. Uh,
Brad: but
Chris: we’re the, we’re the best at
Brad: Talk Story podcast.
Chris: And if it’s kind of your first time, this is Bradley Wells. And this is Christian DA Base? Yep. I’m from First Surf Shop, uh, division Wynwood, which is a skate shop out in Wynwood. I am from Thank you
Brad: Surfing and New York and, and New York and, and my family and my mom and dad and everywhere else
Chris: didn.
And we’re just a couple average guys that, you know, love surf. We talk about surf, we talk about things that revolve around surf. Mm-hmm. And uh, you know, just kind of keeping it easy breezy. This is the story. So let’s crack right into it. ’cause you know, there’s people out there kind of like jittery and Yeah.
You know, like surf report and weather forecasting and we’re, we’re gonna
Brad: get to it. We are getting to that. There’s a little teaser right here. I know. Keep you in here. Uh, so weekly happenings. This is our standard. What the hell’s happening in surfing [00:02:00] in, in South Beach and in Miami in general, as far as events.
Events, what’s going on?
Chris: What’s the haps as some would say? Um. I, I got nothing. You got nothing? I know that we got a video coming up with Vis Oh yeah. Uh, cam Anderson’s new one. Oh, cool. Um, it’s not that long, but we got, well, we’re not really sure whether we’re gonna have it here at this store or if we’re gonna do it in Wynwood.
’cause it’s such a good, fun spot over there as well. Safe. So stay tuned. We’ll kind of have something figured out. I know that we’re working with Surf Rider to be able to do another event that we did here with Concrete Brewery. Oh, cool. Um, do another, um, you know, beach cleanup. Have a bunch of boards on the beach so people kind of, so we’re talking about maybe like international surf day or maybe a day before that.
I know that’s still like June. In June. I know we’re gonna have another party before that. You know, we, we don’t need a reason to have fun. No. So.
Brad: That’s for sure. But cool.
Chris: So working on some programming, uh, what I am intrigued in is what you mentioned about your tacos that you make and stuff like that.
Like a couple events that we’ve had before. Bradley, if you guys don’t know, [00:03:00] makes an epic shredded beef taco it. Pork. Pork. Pork, usually pork, dig on the swine.
Brad: A big,
Chris: big on swine, big on slide. So maybe we can host another one of those things.
Brad: Yeah, I think next time, well I don’t want to foreshadow too much, but.
Looks like we’ve got a swell inbound. So Wayne, maybe soon. Yeah. So when that all comes together, we can do like a little impromptu thing here at the shot. I mean, who
Chris: doesn’t like surfing? Uhhuh? Having brews and tacos right
Brad: afterwards. And then also maybe have some of the local photo put their memory sticks into the computer.
Put, can I tell you how much I love the fact that we have so many more
Chris: photographers out there and we have really good photographers Yeah. That do awesome stuff. Yeah. Yeah. So many more eyes. So it’s, it’s kind of killer and I don’t know, we have. Some stuff coming up in the next couple days for, it’d be really exciting to see what these guys got.
Brad: Yeah, no. So I think, uh, next few days, sometime, maybe early next week, we should probably do like one of those little, I don’t even know what the hell it is, uh, party who’s in a wave party [00:04:00] and, uh, tacos, some beverages, put some stuff up on the screen. Everyone kind of. Peanut gallery it up. Oh, I love those.
Yeah,
Chris: there’s just something about the energy when everyone’s just stoked. Everyone’s smiling. Yeah. Yeah. Everyone’s caught waves. There’s like high fives and it’s just like everyone’s just. Stoked to be around each other. It’s like there’s uplift in feelings. It’s a holiday. Yeah, it is For us, you know, a lot of it’s ’cause we don’t get waves much.
They’re like, woo, we no waves. But it’s,
Brad: it’s so you wait that long and you all know that you’ve been waiting that long and so when you actually do get waves and everyone gets surfed out and then you like kind of fall into the surf shop after. Yeah. Right. And then there’s like beverages and wait, there’s a taco and wait is that picture, is that me?
You know, it’s like, it’s fun. It adds the whole experience. Yeah.
Chris: Nobody wants to leave. It’s like 11 o’clock and you’re like, I really gotta wake up in the morning. Everyone’s there could wave again. Never. So it’s good stuff. I’m, I’m looking forward to that. Yeah.
Brad: So, uh, I guess we’ll keep you guys updated on social media as to what the hell’s going on with, [00:05:00] uh, any sort of posts well party that could be going on.
Um, but we have, uh, other things going on in the neighborhood. Um, kite surfing is coming before the city of Miami Beach. There’s, um, some issue as to where is the safest place to do it, where is the correct place to do it. Um, there’s a lot of, I guess, historical norms and where it’s been, been going on. A lot of people that are informed and maybe not so
Chris: informed.
Right. And you know, it, it’s a hard thing. You know, Miami Beach is only so big. Yeah. And you know, we are, we are. Our, our city is based on tourism. So, uh, the area that originally kiters had was one beach or a stretch of beach between 25th and 29th Street on, on Miami Beach. And, um, the reason they were able to do so was there was no lifeguard tower there.
And the city has an ordinance that within, you know, within a hundred, uh, 450 feet of every tower. Um, you’re not allowed to have any sort of kite sports or anything along those lines, Uhhuh. Um, so what did the city do after a bunch of neighbors had [00:06:00] complained about kiters and honestly, in the 10 years that they had the kiters there, it’s only maybe been six different incidences there.
Whereas if you go on the boardwalk on Miami Beach where people run a bicycle on way more incidences that happened there. Crazy. So, yeah, so it’s crazy when you kind of relay it like that. And, and you know, the city just did a sneaky thing where they put a lifeguard tower. Right in the middle of where they were doing it at.
So it kind of prevents em and only left them with like a hundred feet to be able to kind of launch and put all their stuff out. Now it’s hard ’cause where they’re doing it at, there’s hotels all around, there’s condos, you know, so you, and it’s a mix of people that know what they’re doing that are IKO certified as well as people that are kind of beginning, and then there’s the schools that are running out of there.
So. Just realistically, there’s too much going on in one little area. So they’ve broken it down into saying, Hey, we should have a couple different beaches or different beach areas that are designated for, okay, if you’re a beginner, then this is the beach you should be launching at, which is, I think the 75th street area, uh, which is the North Beach area of the beach.
[00:07:00] Um, then there was two other beaches, one’s in the fifties, and then back with the original spot 29th that were more for people that are IKO certified level three. Um, and they would note that by, um, a, a certain handkerchief color that they would put on their, on their kites. So that, ’cause a lot of it is enforcement.Like, how do you enforce these things? How do you, somebody coming from another country that, that knows how to kite but may not know the area, may not be that good. Like, who’s gonna say this, this, and this? You know, one of the hardest things that the city has is the ability to enforce. You know, so when you gonna get code, code can’t even handle some of the things out there already.
What do they have to come out there? So they’re trying to make everybody happy. Um, the Kite group have a great amount of people that are pushing this. Um, as surfers, you know, I might not kite, but I support. Them and what they’re doing because, you know, it’s a water sport. We’re surrounded by water. We, I mean, this is what people move and live here for.
Yeah. And, um, you know, the demographics of people that kite, it’s not a cheap sport, you know, so most times people at Kite have pretty decent amount of dispensable income. Um, so they, yeah, yeah. [00:08:00] They’re spending it locally, whether it is that they’re buying condos here or they’re going out to the restaurant.
So, um, first Surf shop supports the movement. We hope that, you know, the city does the right thing, which is difficult. Uh, and hopefully all it is, is that they just designate the areas. Make it so that you’re good. You’re here, you’re not so good. You’re going over here. And that everyone just some signage for everybody to know,
Brad: right?
Well, this is all happening in, uh, the city of Miami Beach right now. And so if you have an opinion about what we’ve been talking about, make your voice heard you live here, or you vacation here. So if we haven’t heard from you, it’s. Your own fault. Absolutely.
Chris: And also on Facebook, there’s plenty of local groups.
Uhhuh, if you just probably look up Miami Beach kite boarding, you’ll find that there’s plenty of local groups that will give a lot more information. Uh, next Wednesday is a neighborhoods meeting or, or that goes before the commission, uh, to go ahead and discuss the proposal of stuff. So get informed, um, jump out there, help out if you can.
Um, because it could be kite surfing one day and it could be kayaking, another surfing, [00:09:00] you know? So in a sense we, even though you don’t do all the sports, we gotta kind of look out for each other for sure.
Brad: Alright, what else we got? Um, oh, you know what, uh, Scott Stripling was here earlier when I showed up at the shop, and they are doing, uh, what’s, uh,
the Blue Water Task Force
right from Surfrider uh, Surfrider Foundation, uh, specifically Surfrider in Miami,
Miami, south Florida chapter.
Chris: And, uh, they’ve got a lab. Set up in the shop.
So yeah, we, we, we’ve kind of carved out a little space for ’em to set up their, you know, their testing equipment, uh, to go ahead and just test our local waters both on the ocean as well as the bay. Um, the state of Florida’s Department of Health have kind of cut back.
On a lot of their budgets and some of that has to do with local water testing. So we said, well, if they’re gonna drop the ball, let’s pick up the slack however we can.
Nice.
Um, for me it was a matter of how can I help? I gotta carve you out a little space That’s super easy. So, you know, Surfrider’s done such a phenomenal job about.
Helping out with our [00:10:00] sand dune restorations, as well as cleaning up on the beach. Um, so it’s, it’s really nice to see how big that group has gotten and how just involved they are. Like you have so many different people now that just come into the store and say, Hey, I’m here to test the water. They go out, they do the test, they come back and they, you know, the next day and they get the, the, the test results.
And, you know, they’ve been working on the baseline. I think we’re there and we’ll be able to test all the, you know, the five different spots in the beaches from here all the way up to Haulover, and then start testing the bays. Um, ’cause we have different access points on the bay that get a little bit dirtier than others.
Great. And so it’s, it’s kind of good for us to know what’s out there.
Yeah. So keeping
Brad: the tabs on the pulse of what’s happening with the water quality. I mean, as a surfer, you’re basically the canary in the coal mine.
Chris: Right?
Brad: Right. Now, the way the city, I mean the state operates is that testing is done so often.
Right.
And tests come back. They have to verify that the results are, uh, what they are. And by the time that all happens. You already were in the water as a surfer and they have gotten sick. So this is, uh, a little bit maybe [00:11:00] more, uh, proactive,
right?
A stance.
I will say that there are hard
Chris: times before where we’ve heard the water quality wasn’t that great.
Yeah, there’s still guys out there, but at least, you know, at least you know,
Brad: if you’re getting sick. I was warned. Well, the fact of the matter is a lot of times those warnings come out was because there was bad water, right? In previous days, right? That doesn’t mean that the water’s bad today, right? It just means.
Two days ago, the water. And that’s the thing is
Chris: you, you test it one day and you don’t get the results until the following day. Right. And then, but like, you know, ocean has a way of being able to kind of cleanse herself and then it doesn’t necess then if you, you literally would almost have to test every single day in order to get a consistent pattern of what the following day is gonna, you know,
Brad: and frankly, I would even say more than that be to title changes and rainstorms that come through and a million other factors that happen in the subtropics here.
But anyway, that’s probably a conversation for another day. Got surf water just went. What? Yeah, they’re working on it. Uh, we should have ’em come in, uh, maybe do a little talk story about what they’ve been doing and maybe that’s great [00:12:00] initiatives. Good idea.
Chris: Um,
Brad: yeah. Especially
Chris: now that we’re coming into spring break and we have so many people here.
Yeah. So many people in the water, so many people, you know, it’d be, it’s important, right?
Brad: Like you said before, we all come here, uh, in one way or another for the water. Yeah. To live in a beach community. So, um, making sure that the water quality is. It’s a big deal. So, um, props to Serve Runner Foundation, Miami and, uh, to you guys.
Yeah. First job.
Chris: Nice work.
Brad: I mean.
Chris: Alright. We’re trying, you know what, whatever we can do, sometimes we can’t be out there to pick up trash on our own. So if we can go ahead and donate a board for a raffle that helps ’em to raise some money or if we can go ahead and provide a lab, you know, or anything helps.
We all don’t have to help the same way. But if you help in one way or another, we all get to some point. Yeah. You know, pitch in a little bit. Yeah. However you
Brad: can. I. Um, oh, so you guys know that there’s a big swell coming, really, so it’s all, all over. Everyone’s Instagram feeds, all over social media, all over all the surf websites.
I just wanted to let you know that if you’re really [00:13:00] a nerd about this stuff, you can go on thank you surfing.com. I got a little tab at the top called Surf Science and it’s got pretty much every link that I use to do my forecasting. And so you can go in there and like. Nerd out for hours. I mean, I’ll be honest, it’s not the easiest thing Right.
To, to wade through. Right. There’s a lot of like highly technical information in there, some not so good. Would, would you
Chris: encourage somebody to like, I mean like maybe like research the terminology and the jargon that’s used so that you’re better able to understand what you know, ’cause I’m guessing across the board meteorologists are using the same kind of wording for things for the most part.
Brad: Yeah, definitely. I mean, just like any sort of, um. Art or science, there’s like a terminology, right? Um, unless
Chris: you’re
Brad: dumb off and you’re just using, uh, chicky, alright, you’re just using lyrics and you’re like, man, this guy’s crazy. But I love him. We’ll get back to Chicky in a second, but yeah, I mean, uh, expose yourself to what’s out there.
I try to cherry pick all the stuff that I really like, um, the stuff that may be more relevant to a surf forecaster [00:14:00] than just a weather forecaster or something. Um, but yeah, check out the surf science. Just click around. You’ll see all the kinds of stuff that I’m into. That’s great. That, that helps me forecast and then you can start to piece it together.
You know, like I drop hints about how I come to certain conclusions through all the different reports and forecasts that I put out there.
Chris: And from what I’m told, it’s not an exact science.
Brad: Yeah. Okay. So let’s, let’s just get into it. ’cause I know this is probably what everybody wants to know about is what’s happening.
Um, well, okay.
Chris: Wait, can we first go into what happened a couple days ago with that little swell that we got? Oh yeah, sure. What day is today? We’re on Friday. What was that? A Wednesday?
Brad: Yeah. So actually, you know, it’s kind of interesting. Um, as a forecaster, one of the things that’s really important is going back and understanding, uh, what you predicted, right?
And then what actually happened, right? It’s the only way you really improve and, and holding yourself accountable. Um, I’m getting better at holding myself accountable. I definitely know that all you guys hold me accountable when I say it’s gonna be good. And then it’s not like. I get crap. Or if I say it’s Kneehigh and it was [00:15:00] waist high, someone would be like, I brought the wrong board.
You’re a jerk. But anyway, stop by first serve Shop. We’ll take care. Yeah. You’ll get your new board. Um, it is, it’s really, it’s a really difficult thing to piece all together. Um, and I can imagine
Chris: that little pause before you, you, you put the, the forecast out. You’re like, lemme just proofread this one more time again.
Yeah, absolutely.
Brad: I mean, I feel like a, a responsibility Sure. To put out information that’s. Good information. Right. Um, and it’s hard to, to know what’s good information sometimes, because like you said, it’s an art as well as it’s a science. Sure. Um, and South Beach is hard
Chris: really
Brad: for me. A triangle
Chris: really claimed it a while ago.
I’m gonna keep claiming it’s ber me a triangle throws everything.
Brad: Okay. So back to this wealth that you asked about last episode on episode number seven. Um, we talked about how we might be breaking out of the wintertime pattern that we were in. I mean, excuse me, the summertime pattern, right. How we might [00:16:00] emerge back into a winter pattern.
That is exactly what’s happened. Um, we jumped, you know, that high, that was, uh, the Bermuda High has shifted Southeast, which allows more storms to come off the Mid-Atlantic, allows cold fronts to come further south. And that’s exactly what happened. Uh, LA Wednesday, yeah, Wednesday we had, uh, a cold front kind of started to come down the state.
It came just enough. South that we got some, uh, wind in our window to make some waves and it didn’t get blown out because the front didn’t push all the way south, which is something that we see a lot of the time here. So that was wind swell that came through. It’s like your general cold front swell. Okay.
Which is, uh, like any wave wind driven. Right. But it’s not necessarily due to like a massive load that’s gonna spin up. Right. Pushing. Yeah. Um, so it’s, it’s basically the, the advent of colder, drier air. Pushes all that stuff down, uh, the state, and it seems to sort of funnel down into South Florida ’cause of the way The Bahamas are right.
And every once in a [00:17:00] while when it’s just big enough and just from the right angle,
Chris: we get a little
Brad: wave down here.
Chris: Was that this past Wednesday swell, was that limited to just us? I, I know there was some waves up the road. How far up did it go? Where was the. Where was the shadow that it kind of was blocked and it didn’t really hit anywhere.
Weather. There waves pretty much on the whole coastline.
Brad: Oh no. I mean, this’ll be, um, really a South Florida kind of event when you see these cold fronts come down, um, which is why you get a lot of people coming from up north. It’ll come down to serve the blue water and the palm beaches and stuff. Um, it’s a, a phenomenon that’s really just brought in by that arctic de air that comes south Arctic for us in Florida.
68 degrees. 68 degrees, and. But, um, when that stuff comes down, it pushes, uh, a northerly swell in our direction. And if the direction’s right and the duration of the wind and, and everything else is right, we’ll see a wave down here. Sometimes, like it pushes so far south. It’ll come like where you’ll see like the blue and little dotted line [00:18:00] come like to Broward County, right?
And so if there’s wind blowing, like onshore hard as hell all the way up the coast, up to Broward County, and then South Beach for some reason will be like just a little south that mine, and it’ll be. Glassy, maybe overcast, right? And it’s like, well weird. Like the whole place is blown out except for our spot.
And it can be like maybe for an hour, maybe it can be for 2, 3, 4, or maybe an entire day where that front just kind of dissolves right there, dissipates right in Brow County line and we get no wind. Uh, and we get all that swell. And so that’s kind of what happened last week. Um, we were looking for that first kind of cold front to come down.
It made it a good way down the state and, um, pushed in a little bit of a swell that showed up here. And if you were on it, I mean got, it was fine. You and I were talking early that morning. We’re like, oh, you see what I’m seeing? And I’m like, yeah, yeah, yeah. I’ve been kind of hoping and waiting that it might show, and then I had to actually go, um, do some client stuff.
But, [00:19:00] um, mid-morning through midday was probably. I mean there was nobody out. Yeah. Glassy. Yeah. I was talking chest to
Chris: Dave and Davo was all like, he was, he was like eight 30, he was sitting on the beach and there was nobody out. And he was holding his board and he was like, are there sharks here? Is there something wrong with the water?
Why isn’t this, and like, I mean, you gotta imagine like it’s ni high and we have 30 people out there, so like all of a sudden like thigh to waist, high clean, swell coming in, nobody out. You have to wonder what’s wrong.
It’s,
and it just was, nobody was really kind of expecting it. Right. And if you kind of waited in the morning as I did looking at the cam, you didn’t really see anything, right?
Because it was such a lull. It was like 15 minutes. So you could totally like look at the cam, oh, it’s flat and take off. But 15 minutes later set comes in, weighs high, super fun, got a little bit more consistent. Um, and then the wind was kind of textured on it as well. Then I saw you in the evening.
Brad: Yeah, I had surf that evening and there was still plenty
Chris: of ways coming in.
Brad: Yeah. Yeah.
Chris: Super fun. Yeah, it was great, but nothing. Maybe not like anything that we’re gonna see in the next couple days. I mean, [00:20:00] that means the train, here we come, the pipe train
Brad: is going. All right. So that’s, that’s the whole thing is that when we see patterns like this set up, it’s generally mean that there’s gonna be wave generation from multiple systems over multiple days, maybe even weeks.
Um, I’m a big, big fan of a trend. Okay. And forecasting the trend Is your friend, are we trending? We are trending. Like I said, we were trending into the summertime patterns like weird. How come we’ve got that high blocking everything that’s coming down that’s kind of abnormal for this time of year? That high is retreat.
We’re coming back into a winter trend and that trend is definitely our friend here. Um, so we’re seeing this cold front come down. So Saturday, well actually the front came through. We had some rain earlier today. Um, we should see the, the SELT from that tomorrow maybe into Sunday. And that’s not even the swell that everyone’s waiting for, which is, you know, the thing that’s like super exciting and nerdy for [00:21:00] me is that everyone’s like, oh, the swells coming.
And I’m like, mm-hmm. Multiple swells are coming. And you know, like I know some people scored today, um, and yesterday up coast and they’re starting up there super long period swell, like 18 seconds. And that’s not even from the storm. That’s from a storm that departed days, days ago. Um, that was out in the Mid-Atlantic and now is, you know, probably like coming through, um, great Britain, Ireland, you know, the Black Sea up all up in that.
And it’s like, it’s pushing through there already. That’s in a swell and it’s coming down here and there was a long wave between sets up there, but if you’re out, the wind was good and there was a, a solid smell for Florida. Really solid. So no one even like really paid attention to that one. Right. You know, and it’s because everyone’s waiting for that big purple monster that they see on all the major forecasting sites.
Right. And that’s not gonna show up here until, you know, like probably Sunday into Monday. Right. In South Florida. Right. Um, maybe [00:22:00] slightly before that up coast. But there’s, there’s a lag time in all these things. So right now we’ve got this cold front that’s gonna come through there ever elusive. A monster.
So we’ve got this swell, it’s gonna come down as a cold front swell, like our normal, like if, if this, if this low wasn’t emerging from the Mid-Atlantic right now and wasn’t going to be the, I mean craziest low we’ve seen all winter, then I’d be already excited for this front. Right? I’m like, alright, we got a shot.
Chris: So it doesn’t even anything. So we got this front coming through. It’s gonna give us some waves this weekend. Looks like we’ll have wind attached to that. But maybe not so bad down
Brad: here. Really, this is the thing that I think is so interesting about Surfing Way South, because local workout shows
Chris: that we have north, Northeast winds at 15 knots or so, right?
Brad: But they’re all, no, no, no, no. That’s like, that’s like they’re doing North Winds for tomorrow, north winds for Sunday, but they’re showing much stronger winds out in the Gulf Stream. So they’re [00:23:00] showing a gradient between offshore and here. And sometimes all you need is that like little bit of time in the morning.
Where the sun from the day hasn’t heated the land hasn’t heated the ocean and the wind will just veer to the north, northwest and for certain places in South Florida,
Chris: I wouldn’t know what you’re talking about.
Brad: That can do the thing. Nowhere around here, just for a few hours and you know the whole state will be blown out.
Victory at sea, enormous not, I mean, barely surfable. And is that, is that why
Chris: we’re getting phone calls from people up coast, from people up in Jersey, from people in Hawaii and like, yes, should I fly out to Florida right now? Should I fly to Miami to go surf? And you’re like, you live in Hawaii. Why would you ever want to do that?
Yes. We’re gonna about to
Brad: get to that point. Okay. We just finish out the forecast here and then we’ll get into the, uh, the next topic, which is, why is South Beach such a unicorn? Um, so we’re moving forward. This cold [00:24:00] front swell is gonna come through Saturday into Sunday. We’re gonna see that mix in with a, you know, that major swell that we’re seeing, um, coming up from the Mid-Atlantic storm that’s gonna come off or just came off Montauk and, um, wind’s gonna be on it.
Yeah, it’s definitely gonna be a consideration for the first few days of the swell as we get into Monday afternoon into Tuesday, we’re looking at the wind drop. Right. And, and is that
Chris: statewide
Brad: or is that mostly just here? Okay, well that’s a good question. So it’s gonna happen across the state, but it’s gonna happen in different places at different times.
Start here. Work its way up, Uhhuh. And so you need to be very aware that your conditions locally may not be indicative of conditions 30, 40, 50, a hundred miles up the road, right? Or down the road for that matter. Um, so this is one of those things where there’s gonna be a ton of swell in the water, and you’re gonna want to look for locally where the wind conditions are best and where the tide is best.
It’s also a, I mean, [00:25:00] for Florida it’s a very big swell, so there’s only few places that can handle a swell of this size and this, this period.
Chris: Yeah. I find that a lot of times when you go like north of the Palm Beach line and stuff, a lot of spots just are like block long closeouts, you know, and you’re just like.
Paddling. By the time you get out to the other side, you’re like three miles down the road.
Brad: Yeah. And you’re like, okay, now what?
Chris: Yeah, great. Like swing, I
Brad: made it out. And you’re like looking for your buddies who are like three blocks away. You’re still in
Chris: Melbourne and you’re in Jupiter.
Brad: It’s like that. Yeah.
You’re just like, Hey, maybe I’ll just, I know. Yeah. So you catch hanging out at the two giant closeouts and I’m done. That is, that is, that is a swell in Florida, unfortunately. But you know, um, you guys that do know the spots will be able to find, um, some shelter. Um, whether that be from the wind or it’s gonna just, uh, focus the swell in a way that creates a more rideable wave than what we, um, should be getting for our little beach breaks in Florida.
Um, [00:26:00] so yeah. Um, I guess looking forward to recap, we’ve got Saturday, Sunday cold front swell, um, up coast size. Given it maybe a size on for Saturday, Sunday. I mean, this is as good or. If not better than any cold front swell we’ve seen this year. Okay. So it’s gonna be at least just ahead high. Okay. Um, maybe even better than that.
We thinking like a Saturday evening
Chris: it starts to pick up or are we looking at like first thing tomorrow?
Brad: Well, the funny thing is that right, uh, before I got here, uh, I saw that there was a little bit of a trace showing already. Hello? Um, which is again, like Bermuda Triangle stuff. It’s so hard to tell what’s gonna happen.
All you know is that in situations like this, the ocean is moving. The, the entire Atlantic ocean is moving. And generally when the ocean moves that much all the way down here, fill out reverberations. Right, right. And we get it in like the funniest, cleanest, most comic book [00:27:00] of waste.
Chris: I mean, it almost naturally segues into our next topic.
Yes, exactly. Where it’s, it’s South Beach, the unicorn of surf. Why? Why is it.
Brad: Why is it that people want to surf here? Like it’s
Chris: like planet you have, right? And you have so many of, of like great pros from your Chris Ward to your Lopez brothers that have surfed it and just like claim it all the Geiselman guys as well.
Like everybody from Upco said, you know, our local pros that come down here, everyone loves it because when it’s on our bottom is great and it’s this big A-frame barrels and it’s, and it’s that beautiful Tor turquoise. Turquoise turquoise. Why is it so hard to say? Turquoise water and it’s just, it, it is that uniform.
And the fact that you don’t have to paddle that far out is pretty epic too.
Brad: It’s like, uh, in the shadow of this, well, what is now a multimillion dollar neighborhood, right? Yeah. And you can hear base from the club in the lineup. You see beautiful people on the beach up and [00:28:00] down, you know, not wearing much models and Yeah.
Celebrities and people that wanna be models and celebrities. Uh, it’s pretty interesting. It’s such a, I mean, I grew up serving in New York and so we had, um, uh, you know, a big influence from New York City. And so it was kind of an urban environment and just take that same sort of urban environment and see here, but it’s like all thro out, right?
And super bizarre. And you get guys that come from all over the world just to kind of experience that white sand, perfect wave with a chicken, a thong on the beach. Get off the surf and they’re like, okay, I guess I gotta get outta the Cuban sandwich. Corto. Let’s just get back at it. Right,
Chris: exactly. And that, that’s what I love about the surf shop and the fact that we’re so close to the beach is that, you know, I love that clubhouse feel in general.
When I was just saying earlier about, you know, this just regular surf and people coming in and high fiving having such a good time. But when we have an event like that and we have all these pros that come down here and they get to kind of come and [00:29:00] hang out as well, like it’s our time to shine a little bit and being like, you know, ’cause we don’t really.
Really get to be that much in part of the surf culture, in the, in the, in the international limelight if you will. It’s funny, so if we get those random little moments where people can kind of come in, uh, and kind of appreciate what we got, as well as hang out with us, you know, it’s always good. Speaking of hanging out, Mr.
David Begley, would you like to Karen join us and kind of talk about this next coming swell coming up. That’s all you got folks. That’s all you got shotgun. We’ve clipped them. Um, but yeah, so as a surf shop owner, for me it’s exciting to kind of have people from out of town kind of come see what we got going on, talk some story, crack, open some brews, eat some tacos.
That’s it.
Brad: That’s all. I mean, that’s what it’s all about. It just, what else? So rare that we get to do that here. And so when those opportunities do arise, it kind of feels like everybody’s invited. Like the more the merrier, right? It becomes this sort of carnival. Right atmosphere
Chris: except when you’re in the water and then you’re rubbing elbows with everybody trying to get waves [00:30:00] and all of a sudden it gets real gritty.
Yeah, yeah it is. Like get off the waves. Where are you guys here from? Um, yeah, I guess pretty gnarly. Well, you can tell who they are ’cause they’re not very tan usually. Usually. But then again, you know, you guys see the guys rip and it’s awesome to watch that from a, you know, up coast are punting helicopter airs and
Brad: that’s a whole other thing that’s really cool is like to see people surf at, at a.
You know, like a world caliber at your local spot,
Chris: right?
Brad: And your local spot being kneehigh shop right there, your shop, you know, it’s, it is not normal that, that we see a swell like that. And so we wait and, you know, we, we treasure it, you know, as surfers that live here. And when you see guys coming from out town or, you know, pros coming from Hawaii or something, right?
I mean, people are calling like,
Chris: yo, should I really be coming down for this? And you’re like, I mean, I think it’s gonna be a, a good event. I mean, I. But it’s like there’s always that fear still in me. Yeah. Of like, like I don’t even want to talk about it. Yeah. Because I feel like you talk about it, [00:31:00] then it’s not gonna happen.
And so I’m just like, people are asking me, so what do you think? All this hype? And I’m like, I’m kind of treating it like Disney World when you’re a kid and stuff like that, you know? You know it’s coming in two weeks if you think about it every single day. It seems forever, but if you just forget about it, all of a sudden you wake up the next day like, oh, we’re gonna to Disney World.
Look at that. What do you know?
Brad: I think you’re gonna have to teach me that shit because I’ve had anxiety for like three weeks watching the pattern train and I was like, oh God, we’re going back into winter. I know what that means. And then I’m like, I wait for that load to pop up in one model, like 244 hours out.
I’m like, oh my God, it’s gonna happen. And I’m like talking 10 days out and 10 days in a model is like, you might as well not even look at it.
Chris: Right. And, and that seems to be one of the topics that I’ve heard from you as well as other people about, uh, a certain forecaster. Yeah. That kind of nailed this, uh, you know, pretty far out in advance and that’s really hard.
Brad: Okay, so we’re talking about Dabuh, dabuh.com chicky Dimain You guys gotta check him out. Um, Chicky lives up in north Florida and the guy loves [00:32:00] forecasting. I mean, there’s a good guy. He does. I mean, there’s no way around it. And, um, as a forecaster myself, like I see that in him and we trade notes, we talk sometimes on the phone and everything, and it’s, it’s really important as a, as a surf forecaster in a place like Florida to trade notes because there isn’t, there’s not much in the way of education in this kind of stuff.
It’s just the school of hard knocks. And I know he’s been doing it a long time. I’ve been doing it a long time. And so when we get to kind of understand why do you think that’s gonna happen and why do I not think that’s gonna happen? Maybe we can come to some sort of agreement and say like, right.
Calibrate. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Um, but chickie’s really, really good at, at, at looking at the long term trends. Um. He, he’s more the skills in his elbow. Huh? He’s just like, not even buddy. I wish he, I wish he was that old school. He looks at computer models, right? And, and, uh, these are the weather models that are looking at what’s gonna change the climate, what’s gonna change our weather.
And these are the things that make waves. And he’s not even like a fan of forecasting for his local spot. He’s a fan of [00:33:00] like waves. So when, when a, a storm pops up in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. He’s excited whether it’s gonna make waves for him in his local spot or if it’s gonna make waves in like West Africa, right?
It’s just, you look for certain, uh, patterns, you look for certain, uh, strength of storms develop and that becomes kind of like energizing to you. That becomes like, uh, caffeine where you’re like, and I was gonna say, oh my God, it’s getting
Chris: bigger. I can only imagine what that feels like if you’re forecasting something 10 days out.
And then it still is holding five days out and then it’s still, and it’s about to come to light. That’s gotta be such a big rush. Oh yeah. Of just like you’re the ultimate high five to yourself. You’re like, you rock. Thank you.
Brad: I mean, there’s a lot of anxiety too, the whole way through. ’cause I mean like, um, Chicky posted in the beginning of February, you know, same thing that we’ve been talking about.
How’s blocking high? He is gonna set up and it’s basically gonna to turn our winter into summer very quickly. And then he talked about [00:34:00] how, you know, just like we did, how that can change and we still have winter left, so it seems like somewhere right now. But just wait. And slowly but surely, you know, that prediction came to be truth and now you’re seeing winter coming back.
It’s gonna be cool here, you know, over the weekend weather-wise, and that’s typical of winter, we’re gonna get a cold front swell again like we had last week, typical of winter. And now we’re just seeing this massive. Low set up in the North Atlantic, which is typical of a herd, uh, of a wintertime pattern.
So you just go through it, you know, um, and you get excited when you see the pattern change. And then you hope that you know, what you’re seeing many, many, many, many, many, many days out comes to fruition. Right. And, you know, I know Chicky does this and I know I definitely do. This is the closer you get to, you know, like D-Day when the swell actually arrives.
The better you’re gonna be at your forecast. So it’s like, I knew that we were gonna get waves in the [00:35:00] beginning of March, like some weeks ago. I didn’t know what day or how, but I knew the pattern was changing enough where I was like, oh, we got a shot again at winter. Nice. You know, like, don’t, don’t give up on winter yet, guys.
We got a shot because I was done with it. Yeah, that was, I mean, a few podcasts February
Chris: and it felt like summer and it was like one of the warmest Februarys on record. Yeah. So,
Brad: yeah. Yeah, I mean, it feels like that. And it’s like, well, look at, look at the climatology. We’re not out of winter yet. And so I was holding onto that kind of fact and luckily for my forecasting, it pans out that way.
So Chick does that stuff too. If you guys don’t follow ’em. Chick out d boo.com and chick. Nobody’s
Chris: giving you guys. Sorry if nobody, if nobody’s giving you a high five.
Brad: Yeah. Um, so yeah, it’s a unicorn down here. Um, south Beach is. Like, even in the realm of forecasting these sorts of things, it’s threading a needle.
Yeah. You know, it’s, it’s so much harder than, [00:36:00] I mean, there’s not many spots in the whole world I can think of that are as hard to forecast. I mean, hopefully
Chris: in a couple days we’ll be threading that needle.
Brad: Yep. Very much. Looks like that. Um, so yeah, south Beach, really hard to forecast. Chicky. Love yourself buddy.
Um, keep it coming. Mm-hmm. And, um. All right. That brings us kind of to the next thing I wanted to talk about. ’cause there’s been, um, a lot of stuff happening in the news, um, with millennials and just like how everybody else in society is viewing ’em and um, and are these really the millennials or are these the Z als Z That’s a good point.
I’m just coming calling the kids these days. Kids these days. I like it. Kids these days. What is happening with kids these days? They’re not like us.
Chris: No. They’re a lot more proactive it seems like, and they have a lot more connections and they’re a lot smarter than I think a lot of people give ’em credit for.
That’s what it seems like to me, you know, and, and more so that they’ve tapped into [00:37:00] this something within themselves that maybe they didn’t even know about. Like maybe they didn’t understand their strength, maybe they didn’t understand, like they figured, oh, movements or strengths or things getting done are.
For people that are older or maybe they figured, yeah, maybe that’s how we’ve built society to think so much that you think your elders are the ones that know best and are gonna go ahead and do the best when, and you’re just a kid. What do you know?
Brad: Well, there’s definitely been the paradigm I think of late and we’ve seen it historically through absolutely the history.
I mean, I’m not gonna go and give you guys a history lesson now, but you know, the youth does come and they rise up and they shake the whole structure that you think is intact. You realize, you know, there’s a lot of weaknesses in, in what has been the case for so long, and people just accept it as the case.
And I mean, um, sometimes it takes trauma, it takes something dramatic to occur for people to kind of like wake up to that awareness and, and sort to do things about it. And, you know, it’s, it’s not just about [00:38:00] like the, the awful things that we’ve seen in shootings, at schools, and with guns and all these other things.
It’s. They have this power, um, that I think they’re starting to realize and, and generally I find ’em to be nice kids. Right. You know, and smart and good and like Goodwills, right? They want, they want the right things. They, they seem to have, they seem to have a very good moral compass, right? I don’t think we have that as kids growing up.
Chris: Uh, I mean, you had, I mean, you had so much other things. I mean, technology has allowed for these kids to be able to really be in touch with each other constantly. Whereas we were just passing notes in class, you know, or you were, were getting things second hand or third hand, whether it’s, you know, what the government was doing or this or that.
Like everything is so now, uh, every, you know, everything, like, everything’s just so constant driven. The things are just changing so fast. But it seems like these kids have a pretty good understanding of how to stay a little bit in front of that or how to be able to utilize it. Yeah, yeah. To best serve whatever it is that they, they [00:39:00] want.
And I think. The organizational skills from a lot of these kids and a lot of these kids that are leading the charge are just kind of blowing minds right now.
Brad: Yeah, I guess it’s like you said, it’s ’cause of the technology. They have the tools and. They know how to use these tools from like their own personal lives, right?
It’s like they didn’t realize, right?
Chris: Whoa, I could use this for other stuff, right? And stuff that means something to me and stuff that means something to someone else and let’s get together. And they’re able to get in touch with that person in Japan or that person in Wichita and find some other people that are kind of on that same length as wavelength as them and saying, Hey, you’re right, this isn’t wrong.
Or, Hey, I support that too. And find ways to kind of organize and do stuff that is way easier and better and more powerful than what we’ve been able to do.
Yeah.
And I, I’m, I’m stoked on that. Like, I, I hope they really continue to push that envelope. We need that sort of change. Um, we need, so here’s a whole other
Brad: thing, like, let’s take it outside of like all that social change that’s been happening.
Let’s take it back to the lineup. This is where I feel most comfortable. Really. This is not a show about [00:40:00] politics,
right.
Or society, although we delve into these topics due to, I guess, our interest in such things,
right?
But like the Larsons and, um, you know, Billy,
yes.
I wonder how the hell those kids develop. The kids, they’re like probably like 10 years younger than me. But anyway, um, like how do they develop this?
They’re, they’re like sophomores and seniors right now.
Okay. So maybe they’re 15 or 20 years old. But anyway, like they seem like they have this grasp of some sort of culture and I’m like, where the freak did that culture come from?
’cause I don’t see it here.
Right.
You know, like, it’s not in the shop. It’s not in the lineup. They’ve like developed their own style of surfing. Of, uh, I don’t even know what else, like art, um, communication. And they’ve started to like mold this all together into something that I don’t, I mean, it’s hard to recognize.
For me, it,
Chris: it’s great because there’s like, it’s like part bohemian, you know, part like free love and then, but at the same time, like part punk and part like [00:41:00] technology. And it’s
Brad: purposeful though, right? It’s like. Do you know how long it takes to do some of these things that they do? It is like they do it so easy to, they put together like all this multimedia stuff where it’s like, wait, so you guys went surfing?
But then you decide that you’re actually gonna film the whole thing, right? You’re gonna have like segments, right? Or I don’t even know. Maybe they don’t think about it. Maybe it comes naturally. I have no idea. It’s so confusing to me because the pride that they push out, I’m like, these guys look like they’re like.
Professional branders. Like they, they have this whole lifestyle that they’ve branded and I’m like, they look, they’re
Chris: cool. They’re able to tell a great emotional story and that, and that’s what, and that, and that’s what connects I, you know, maybe they’re tapping into what is the most natural part of them, which is what we all tap into as well.
When we see things like, you have companies that specifically try to brand. And try to create a moment or a feeling so that you feel it, you identify with it, and then you go purchase whatever it is. These kids are doing it because it’s like, it’s just their form of expression and it’s natural and [00:42:00] organic to them and it’s naturally registering with all of us.
Like we’re just like being so well. Yes. It’s being able to say something that you maybe not, were able to have words to put to. Yeah. You know? Uh, and it’s great because that, that’s kind of where things are at, you know? I mean, that’s what we try to do here at the shop is create. Some sort of emotional connection to the brands that we carry, how we curate the place and stuff like that.
And those kids are just doing it with, this is my life.
Brad: And I think like it has to be this technology that allows ’em to communicate with people that are not necessarily in the local scene. Right. I’ve never seen anybody longboard like those two girls longboard. And what’s crazy
Chris: is they grew up here and their mom grew up here surfing as well, but they’re mostly surfing up in Fort Pierce and whatnot because they acknowledge, they’re like, I wanna surf.
So they’re, they’re gonna make the trek and they’re gonna go up there. And then, but as they do that, they’re, they’re filming stuff and they’re getting content out of it, and, and it’s kind of cool. And then they’re kind of doing what they do, get all snazzy out there. And, but it’s great because they’re, they’re, they’re locals that grew up here and their mom grew up here, but like, I just saw ’em recently as [00:43:00] well.
And, you know, they stand out because they rip and they’re just, and they, but they’re like just such cool kids that you’re just like, dude, I wanna just hang out with your energy. You’re cool. Yeah.
Brad: Yeah. I definitely give them the cool stamp of approval and whatever it is that they’re doing, like, I hope that all the other kids start to follow suit.
Uh, and what I’ve seen through like, I guess all this other stuff is that that is, I guess, what that generation is and they have this enormous power. Um, hopefully we can all, as, I guess. Being a little bit older, guide them to, to put that stuff into, make good energy and, and
Chris: support it. You know, they’re, you know, they’re here, they’re, they’re powerful.
You know, we’re, we’re hearing them. I support it. I got your back.
Brad: The other thing I notice about the kids these days is they’re super nice. Like, at least in the lineup, like the kids I see out here are like the most respectful, uh, driven, motivated kids. I’m like. How in God, like that’s not what and articulate.
I know. That’s not what we were as kids. [00:44:00] Yeah. I was, you know, like dragging my tongue on the ground and just looking for a shady place to hang out with my friends and not be seen by anybody. And here they are, you know, like, dude, the complete opposite. They’re like, I’m here. I’m gonna tell you what we’re all about.
I’m gonna tell you what I stand for and I’m gonna be super respectful in, in the way that I deliver it. And it’s, it’s like age beyond their years. And so it’s super cool to see all that stuff. Um, well, it’s not like I’m a super old guy all of a sudden.
Chris: Well, but it’s nice to see, I mean, when I was younger, ’cause I’m probably about a good eight, 10 years older than you, maybe eight years.
So I dunno, um, I’m older. Uh, when I was a kid, it was planet, it was Captain Planet, you know, that was our group I grew up with Captain Planet, that was our recycling guy that kind of told us about things. And you’re like, okay and whatnot, you know, and you kind, right. And you kind of create your own, you know, social responsibility accordingly and stuff like that.
But like, and you kind of learn about things and maybe when you got older, you’re able to articulate, you know. What, what drives you or moves you in that fashion and these kids are able to do it now, and I, I hope my daughter as she grows up, is able to [00:45:00] kind of gravitate towards that. Maybe these kids are catching it earlier and earlier in life and they’re saying, you know, our parents are not doing it.
Let’s let’s do something about it. Yeah, no, that’s because they feel like there’s some sort of importance
Brad: to it. Yeah, that’s totally it. They have a completely different ethos and are driven to, to strive to meet that Right. And. Yeah. I mean, they don’t give a shit high five if everybody else
Chris: doesn’t believe that.
Yeah.
Well, and that’s what’s great is that they’re, they’re not like, they’re not. Cornered into a certain belief system or a certain way of doing things because my parents did it this way, my grandparents this way, I, my parents were a Republican. I have to be Republican. You know, my parents were doctors. I need to go to, you know, medical school and stuff like that.
Kids are coming out and they’re like, I’m gonna do what I want. Yeah, I’m gonna do what I think is great and I don’t care that, you know, blow so and so supports this and stuff like that. And I can’t go against that. No. This is what I believe in and why can’t we just figure. They make it easy. They’re like pork in the fat.
Let’s just get some [00:46:00] facts. Let’s get it done with, why aren’t we getting it done? You’re like, you’re absolutely right. Why aren’t we getting it done? Yeah. They
Brad: challenge that institution. Challenge,
Chris: challenge, challenge.
Brad: And the thing is that they are going to be the largest population, uh, if they aren’t already.
So I mean, if you’re not paying attention to the kids these days, you better start. ’cause they’re gonna run your company. They’re going to be in charge of your community. And probably dating your daughter or son and they have the finger on the pulse. They totally do. So, uh, we gotta bring some of those guys in and get ’em in on the show.
Absolutely. I think
Chris: they
Brad: bought that. Yeah, I think I’d love that. Yeah, no, I wanna know what the hell, how they’re doing it really.
Chris: Um, yeah, so that’s, that’s the show. That is the show. We’ve got some surf coming up next week. We were talking about potentially doing a kind of just pop up. You know, not on our normal Friday.
Depends if we’re doing tacos and beers, we’ll bring you guys in, you know, um, to kind of join with us. We may not talk, talk, we’ll probably have you kind of just seeing everybody. [00:47:00] Everyone will kind of come up and do like, oh, somebody’s asking me a question. It’s probably not for me, but I’m gonna answer it anyways.
Brad: Yeah, exactly. Cool. Super casual and, uh, most importantly, we’ll have a good time, bring the whole community together. Bradley Wells Christian. So awesome doing this. You guys, uh, dodos a favor. Uh, sign up, uh, subscribe. I mean, I forget how to do this. I, I am No Ben Grady. He’s good at it. Uh, subscribe, buy stuff that I don’t sell.
Um, come to first shop. Uh, go to Division Wynwood. Go surf. Yeah. Most importantly go surf. Follow. Thank you surfing, because we are definitely going to be all over this. S well, I’ve been freaking for like, weeks at a time, so, um. We’re on it. We’ll see you guys next time. Have a good night.