|
DR.
STEVE LYONS The Weather Channel’s Tropical Update transcends the realms of mere meteorological information. To surfers waiting for a swell during the summer doldrums, they are the gospel. Finally, though, a man who actually understands our faith has stepped up to the pulpit. Dr. Steve Lyons is more than just TWC’s newest and shiniest talking head; he is a specialist in hurricane forecasting, following in the footsteps of the dearly departed Walter Cronkite of storm forecasting, John Hope. Lyons has been a longtime proponent of wave prediction with over 30 years of surf time under his feet. Although currently living in Atlanta (home of TWC’s studios), Dr. Lyons has put a crimp in the number of sessions he can catch year after year, but he still loves hurricanes. And he’s fast becoming the new great Hope amongst the Eastern waveriding populace. By Eric Seeger
ESM:
Aside from The Weather Channel, have you done any other surf-related
work we should know about?
SL:
You're probably familiar with Surfline. I was the forecaster there for
a while. They were stationed in Huntington Beach and I lived in Ventura
at the time. I phoned in surf forecasts for them for about a year until
I couldn't do it anymore. Then they wanted me to hire and train somebody.
So I did and that man's still there to this day. Also, this guy Vic
Morris, who did the forecast for Puerto Rico, has been a friend of mine
since 1974. He moved from Puerto Rico back to Hawaii and he now does
the Surfline forecasts for Hawaii now.
ESM:
Were you doing this as a freelance job or was it full-time?
SL:
It was just a side thing for fun. I liked doing it, but now I have my
own wave model I run on the PC. In the off season here at The Weather
Channel, I start talking about the waves--if it's going to come up here,
there, or the other place. During the hurricane season, if I have time
on the air, I try to add something in there about the waves on the West
Coast or East Coast.
ESM:
Good, we'd love to see more of that. I mean, you guys do the ski report...
SL:
Even in the winter, I'll do a wave write-up of the entire U.S.,
and if the camera people are able to read that, then you'll sometimes
hear them talk about the waves coming up.
ESM:
Try to get them to do that during a normal time of day.
SL:
Yeah, exactly. What I'd like to do is a sort of routine surf/ marine
section--where you go around the country describing the waves. They
don't seem to think it's that big of a market. Little do they know it's
a huge market.
ESM:
That's what I was going to suggest. Maybe you could do that under
the auspice of "Beach Safety." You could slip in what particular time
the winds are going to go offshore.
SL:
Exactly, to let people know what the wind and wave conditions are
would be great. I tried to get them to do rip currents safety stories.
I wanted to go out in rip currents and show them how to get out of it
and how to never get in one in the first place. But after going in a
wind tunnel up to 160 mph and breaking a few ribs in there, they're
sort of lukewarm on the idea.
ESM:
Any great hurricane swells you surfed that stand out in your memory?
SL:
Oh yeah, in California. 1978, I believe, a huge swell. I don't remember
the name off the top of my head. It was so large it was breaking over
the end of the Huntington Beach Pier at low tide. The pier was about
24 feet off the mean water level, so the waves had to be at least 32
feet. The pier was closed off and it was unrideable. A couple days later,
it came down a little bit--about 10 to 15-foot faces--still a horrible
side current, but just fantastic peaks. Some people tied ropes to the
pilings to hold in the current. We'd just paddle out on the north side
of the pier and drift away with it. We'd catch a couple waves and be
a mile down the beach before we had to come in.
ESM:
Were those the best waves you ever saw?
SL:
The best waves I surfed in California were at the Hollister Ranch,
north of Santa Barbara--just fantastic. That was before it got too crowded.
The last time I was at the Hollister Ranch, though, was 1979, but I
didn't actually surf that time. You can't drive there because it's private
property, but you can launch a boat. My friend had his girlfriend's
dad's boat, and I told him there was going to be big, perfect surf.
I had my lunch, my surfboard, everything. We got into the Ranch and
sure enough here comes this huge northwest swell, about eight to ten-foot,
and I told him, "Hey, turn the boat around and catch this one." You
know, just joking. Then he turned it around and sorta caught the swell
with the boat. We were about a half-mile out, and the thing peaked up
over the reef. The last thing I remember was the wave cresting over
the back of the boat. I dove over the engine into the water with no
wetsuit on. It was winter and the water was 51 degrees. I came out and
the boat was upside down in the wave and the guy is still trying to
power out! It destroyed the boat, my board was broken, and we ended
up on the beach, freezing. Luckily, my wetsuit floated up. The waves
were perfect and peeling at this spot called Little Drake's, and we
didn't even get to surf it. That was some of the best surf I ever missed.
I'll never forget it. That was also the last surfboard I ever owned.
Ever since then I've just borrowed boards and surfed on the fly.
ESM:
Is there any chance you can pre-tape your next batch of forecasts and
run down to our office in Florida for the next good hurricane swell?
We've got a board you can borrow.
SL:
That would be great. The problem is that I surf so little now, I'm not
any good anymore. I used to only surf shortboards, but when I visit
my friend, he only surfs longboards. And they feel so awkward to me
when I paddle out. These pictures he took of me are with his longboard.
ESM:
What type of board would you prefer to ride?
SL:
I'd prefer to ride a 7'0" twin-fin or a tri-fin. That would be my choice.
Longboards are so awkward and slow to turn. All you can really do on
them is turn and get into the tube. I'm just not used to that. But it
is helpful when you're out of shape.
SL:
Yeah, most of my traveling is on the East Coast and the Gulf Coast.
When I go to the East Coast, I always pack my swim fins. I still have
my same Churchills with coral cuts all over the bottom that I bought
in 1973, right when the company started. They're always in my suitcase.
So if there are waves, I usually go up to Atlantic City or Wrightsville
Beach, somewhere right on the water. I used to bodysurf in Hawaii and
at the Newport Wedge in California, because that's something you can
always do. So I'm out there bodysurfing now--you know, in the morning
before the talks or something. I won't go out in huge surf, because
I'm not in all that good of shape, but if the waves are under 10-feet,
I'm out there.
ESM:
Since it seems like at least 75 percent of surfers consider themselves
amateur meteorologists, are there any information resources or books
on surf prediction you could recommend?
SL:
As a matter of fact, that's how I got interested in weather. I put up
a weather hutch in my backyard just so I could figure out whether the
wind would blow onshore or offshore at the beach based on the temperature
at my house. And it worked pretty well. Unfortunately, it's very difficult
to find a book on wave forecasting that's not just theoretical with
a bunch of equations in it. Vic Morris wrote a paperback called The
Weather Surfer (c. 1977 Grossmont Press). I still think it's a good
book on how weather relates to waves and how it controls them. It has
some wave forecasting procedures in it. If it's still in print, I recommend
it because it's pretty handy for guys trying to figure out the weather
for their own surfing purposes. On the East Coast, it would be very
handy. There's another book that's a little newer called Waves, Tides,
and Shallow Water Processes, but it's more of a textbook. It's got
information about waves, wave forms, wave energy, and tides.
ESM:
Kinda hard to predict the unpredictable...
SL: The problem with ocean wave forecasting is that it's only as good as the weather model that forces the wave model. The wind model--atmospheric model--generates the inputs for the waves models. So if that ocean wind model is no good, the wave model won't give you the right answers. And typically, swell is the easiest thing to forecast. That's the thing that surfers are most interested in, and that's the thing that numerical models do the poorest job of. They typically don't propagate wave energy very accurately in the models, and there's a simple reason for that. It's because the models don't have high enough resolution. ESM:
So come clean. How many gallons of bottled water do you keep on
hand at your house? Two days worth? Five days worth?
SL: I live in Atlanta, which is not very hurricane-prone, but I usually have about a week's worth. When I lived in Miami, that was serious business. You really feel vulnerable when something's coming your way there. I had a whole lot of (supplies) there. Of course, when the hurricanes came, I would be at the hurricane center continuously. So I still had to worry about my family. I put up the shutters if something threatened. And my whole neighborhood would watch me. If Steve had his shutters up, they would all put theirs up. ESM:
Who picks that awful music for the local forecasts?
SL: It used to be a little better, but there are a couple people who do that. They're trying to reach a happy medium where they want to satisfy everybody by not offending anybody. TWC's marketing strategy is that the age group from 25 to 50 are the people who spend all the money. Above that, they're saving for retirement and being frugal, and below that, they don't have any money. So TWC tries to put on the music that satisfies that range. ESM:
Is there an office where people are sitting around a table, listening
to CDs, and saying, "Nope, not lame enough. Next..."?
SL:
Actually, one guy is the primary music guy. His name is Steve Hurst,
and he sometimes slips. Sometimes it's like elevator music and there
are other times where the stuff is god awful.
ESM:
Since you're seated behind a desk when you're doing your forecasts,
can you promise us that you'll do at least one hurricane broadcast while
wearing boardshorts?
SL: I sure will. |
|
Interview
BACK ISSUES #63 / #64 / #65 / #66 / #67 / #68 / #69 / #70 / #71 / #74 / #75 / #78 / #82 / #83 / #84 / #85 / #86 / #87 / #88 / #89 / #90 / #93 / #94 / #95 / #97 / #98 / #99 / #100 / #101 / #102 / #103 / #104 / #105 / #106 / #108 / #109 / #110 / #111 / #112 / #113 / #114 / #115 / #116 / #117 |