Headlines From the Waterline

The new moon this week brings spring tides: higher highs, lower lows, and faster water movement in between. "Spring" has nothing to do with the season; it describes the tide springing further up and down the beach when the sun and moon line up. Neap tides, with the smallest range, follow about a week later around the quarter moons.

For surfers, a big range changes everything on a timetable. Reef breaks that are perfect at mid tide may be dangerously shallow an hour earlier than usual. Beach breaks can go from fat to closing out in the middle of a session as the push fills in. Use the rule of twelfths as a rough guide: the tide moves least in the first and last hour of each six-hour run, and most in the third and fourth.

What to do: check an official tide table — the UK Hydrographic Office feeds most British apps, and NOAA publishes US stations — and plan your session around the hour, not the day.

Every spring, warmer air pulls visitors to beaches before lifeguard patrols are fully back. The RNLI's Float to Live campaign is short enough to remember in cold water: tilt your head back, extend your arms and legs, and float until the shock passes and your breathing settles. Then swim parallel to the shore, out of the current, or raise an arm and shout.

Surfers have a simple advantage: the board floats. Never let go of it in a rip. Most rips are narrow channels of seaward water between sandbars, recognisable as darker, calmer gaps where waves are not breaking, often with rippled or foamy surface water drifting out. Paddle out through them if you know the beach; never fight them on the way in.

The World Surfing Reserves programme, run by the Save The Waves Coalition, recognises waves and coastlines of outstanding quality and builds a local stewardship council around each one. Malibu became the first reserve in 2010. Ericeira in Portugal followed in 2011 as Europe's first, with its string of reefs and points from Ribeira d'Ilhas to Coxos.

Designation does not freeze a coast by law on its own, but it gives local groups a structure to argue against harbour works, sand mining or poorly planned seawalls. For visiting surfers the practical message is the usual one with more weight: park where you are told, take your rubbish home, and respect the line-up order.

Air warms weeks before water does. On the North Atlantic coasts the sea usually bottoms out in late winter and early spring, which is exactly when people ditch boots and hoods after one sunny weekend. A rough guide: below about 10°C, a 5/4 with hood, boots and gloves; 10–14°C, a 5/4 or 4/3 with boots; 14–18°C, a 4/3 or 3/2; 18–22°C, a 3/2 or spring suit; above that, boardshorts or a vest.

Wind chill and session length matter as much as the number. If your hands stop working, the session is over, whatever the forecast promised.

Surfing debuted at Tokyo 2020 at Tsurigasaki Beach, then moved to the heavy reef of Teahupo'o in Tahiti for Paris 2024, some 15,000 kilometres from the host city. For LA28, organisers announced Lower Trestles near San Clemente, a cobblestone break long used for professional finals. Expect more visitors around San Onofre State Beach in the years ahead, and plan early-morning sessions if you want space.