Surfability: A Proposed Scale for Surfable Waves

This paper describes a proposed scale for surfability and is field tested with 24 months of visual observations at Imperial Beach, California, USA. At present there is no generally accepted method to classify "surfability", or surf quality, of surfable waves. In this paper surfability is defined by a ten point scale ranging from extremely poor to excellent. Each point on the scale includes a subjective quality rating and an objective percentage representing increasingly higher quality rideable surfing waves. Oceanographic characteristics (height, period, direction, tide, sea surface condition) were simultaneously recorded for cross-comparisons with the surfability rating. Joint distributions delineate which conditions are most conducive to high surfability. Human nature introduces some influences on the visual observations.