Science of Surfing

What’s next for Science of Surfing?

I guess it is as good a question as any after 115 others.

Oct 12 • Kevin Okun

12

2

1

First Order: How much does rail shape matter?

A 16% change in force from reshaping the last 5 cm of a surfboard. What 51 flow simulations say about low rails, 50/50 rails, hard edges, and thickness.

Oct 5 • Kevin Okun

2

September 2026

What are Kelvin waves?

7.81 ft: La Jolla's highest water on record, set during El Niño. What Kelvin waves are, how they reach San Diego, and why tides run high in El Niño…

Sep 28 • Kevin Okun

7

2

1

How much rain actually makes it to the ocean?

How much San Diego rain reaches the ocean? River gauge data from 213 storms shows a light rain delivers about 1% and a big storm close to 10%.

Sep 21 • Kevin Okun

1

How does bottom roughness affect waves?

Water moving twice as fast over the same bottom takes eight times as much out of the wave above it. How seafloor roughness eats a swell before it…

Sep 14 • Kevin Okun

7

1

Why do A-frames make such good waves?

A horseshoe-shaped sandbank gives a wave a peel angle that changes along the ride, from a steep peak to a workable wall. Why that shape makes an A-frame…

Sep 7 • Kevin Okun

13

1

August 2026

Why is peel angle important for surfing?

Peel angle is the angle between the breaking wave and the wave crest, and it decides whether or not a wave closes out. Why the seafloor sets it, not the…

Aug 31 • Kevin Okun

6

1

Do other kinds of waves break?

A 200-meter wave breaks a few hundred meters down and leaves only a slick on the surface. Sound breaks. Light in a vacuum is the one wave that cannot.

Aug 24 • Kevin Okun

7

1

3

First Order: Why is Black's Beach bigger than surrounding breaks?

A wave model ran 20 swells over La Jolla's real seafloor, then erased the canyon and ran them again. Blacks wins every time, but not the way you think.

Aug 17 • Kevin Okun

6

What affects water clarity?

Some days you see the bottom, some days your feet. Wave period, not wave size, does most of the work, and clear water and clean water are unrelated…

Aug 10 • Kevin Okun

9

1

1

First Order: How does the seafloor change a swell on its way in?

A long-period swell arrives facing the beach on both coasts.

Aug 3 • Kevin Okun

7

2

July 2026

First Order: Which swell directions can actually reach your break?

Two breaks a few miles apart can read the same buoy and yet be nothing alike.

Jul 27 • Kevin Okun

13

1