Spring tides are tides with the greatest tidal range. Despite their name, spring tides don’t just occur in the spring; they occur throughout the year whenever the Moon is in a new-moon or full-moon phase, or about every 14 days.

Rather, the term is derived from the concept of the tide “springing forth.” Spring tides occur twice each lunar month all year long without regard to the season. In both cases, the gravitational pull of the sun is “added” to the gravitational pull of the moon on Earth, causing the oceans to bulge a bit more than usual.

Spring tides happen just after every full and new moon, when the sun, moon and earth are in line. That’s when lunar and solar tides line up and reinforce each other, making a bigger total tide. Neap tides occur when the moon is in the first or third quarter – when the sun, earth and moon form a right angle.

When the gravitational pull of the sun and moon combine, we see larger than average tides – known as spring tides. Yet some spring tides are higher than others. This is because tidal forces are strengthened if the moon is closest to Earth in its elliptical orbit (astronomers call this perigee).

King tides are a type of spring tide. As with regular spring tides, which occur a couple of times a month, a king tide is the result of the alignment of the sun, moon, and Earth. (The extra gravitational pull of the sun, as well as the moon, creates higher-than-normal tides.)

You can have a high slack when the tide reaches its maximum height or a low slack when the tide reaches its lowest height. Therefore, you can expect to see two high slacks and two low slacks in a 24-hour period in most places. Peak currents are therefore at the midpoint between high and low tide.

Low tide—The lowest point that the water level will reach in a tide cycle. Max ebb—The maximum rate of flow of water as it recedes. Max flood—The maximum rate of flow of water as it rises.

2.75 to 3 hours

The slack portion of the tide, high or low, only lasts for about 20 to 30 minutes.

An incoming tide, or rising tide, is considered one of the best fishing tide times. An incoming tide can be the best tide to fish when focusing on inshore tidal flats. As the tide begins to rise, and water flows over the saltwater flats, fish begin to patrol these areas in search of food.

Slack water (the time around high or low tide) is the best time to crab. During slack water, crabs are generally walking around and foraging since they are not getting pushed around by tidal exchange.

: the period at the turn of the tide when there is little or no horizontal motion of tidal water. — called also slack tide.

not using due diligence

The incoming tide along the coast and into the bays and estuaries is called a flood current; the outgoing tide is called an ebb current. The weakest currents occur between the flood and ebb currents and are called slack tides.

High tides occur 12 hours and 25 minutes apart. It takes six hours and 12.5 minutes for the water at the shore to go from high to low, or from low to high. Unlike a 24-hour solar day, a lunar day lasts 24 hours and 50 minutes.

At low tide, water moves away from you and towards the “bulge” created by the gravitational effect of the moon and/or the sun. Conversely, when the “bulge” is at your location, water flows towards you, giving you a high tide. Technically speaking, water does not actually go far at low tide.

At the coast, low tide is the time when the sea is at its lowest level because the tide is out.

All it means is that the spot works best at low tide. Tides affect water depth, which in turn either exposes or hides the ocean floor that is necessary for a wave to break.

The best tide for surfing in most cases is low, to an incoming medium tide. Keep in mind low-tide on shallow surf breaks jack the waves up higher, leaving less room between the water’s surface and ocean bottom.

Tide and Surfing If the tide is too high and rising, each successive wave will push higher, while if the tide is high and falling, the energy in the waves will decrease with each wave. As the tide approaches low tide, the waves will be less powerful and flat.

slack tide