150 CHARACTER OF SURF 



necessary to attempt landing during onshore winds strong enough to 

 cause a breaking sea offshore, for its use may prevent the waves from 

 breaking until they reach the surf line, proper. 



THE PERSISTENCE OF SURF AND ITS RELATIONSHIP 

 TO THE WIND 



The regularity of the breakers, locally or seasonally, and the length 

 of time during which a dangerous surf may persist, depends on the 

 regularity of the wind, either nearby, or in storm centers at a distance. 

 The Trades are the most regular winds of the world; consequently the 

 surf is the most nearly regular in the downwind parts of the Trade 

 Wind Belts of the Atlantic and Pacific, north and south, and of the 

 Indian Ocean south of the equator. Classic examples are the breakers 

 on the windward shores of the Lesser Antilles, and the surf of the is- 

 land groups and atolls of the western tropical Pacific facing the sweep 

 of the Northeast or of the Southeast Trades, at the time of year when 

 these are the most regular in direction and blowing at their highest 

 average velocities. Surf also runs on the east coasts of Madagascar, 

 of Mauritius, and of Reunion, more or less the year round, and on the 

 Seychelles from June to October, for this same reason. A heavy surf 

 is to be expected, nearly or quite as regularly, along the coasts of the 

 Arabian Sea, northward from the vicinity of Bombay, right around 

 to Arabia, during the season of the Southwest Monsoon, June to 

 August. 



The windward shores of the northern atolls of the Maldive group 

 and of the Laccadives are also the sites of constant surf at this same 

 season, though it is not often as heavy there as on the island groups 

 of the central and western Pacific, to judge from the fact, to which 

 we can bear witness, that the coral boulders thrown upon the Maldive 

 reef flats are "mere pigmies compared to the gigantic masses moved 

 on some of the reef flats of the Pacific reefs." 45 And breakers dashing 

 against the breakwater of Colombo Harbor, Ceylon, through the 

 Southwest Monsoon have been the subjects of many spectacular photo- 

 graphs. 



Exposed coasts in the West Wind Belt of the Southern Hemi- 

 sphere — the "Roaring Forties" of sailing ship days — and the corre- 

 sponding coasts on the eastern sides of the North Atlantic and of the 

 North Pacific are also battered by breakers of dangerous height, day 

 after day, during the stormy season. Familiar examples are the 

 winter surf on the coasts of northern California, Oregon, and Wash- 

 ington, in the Pacific ; of western Ireland, Scotland, and the Faroes in 



* Agassiz, Alexander. 1902, An expedition to the Maldives. Amer. J. scl., aer. 4, 

 vol. 13, p. 307. 



