Comments on the struggle to get a good surf recording:

'In my experience getting a good surf recording is one of the grails of recording — and perhaps as unattainable.

I've heard numerous descriptions of people doing a bit of sleight of ear by recording from several locastions at varying distances from the break, then mixing them to taste in the studio.

I pursue this goal avidly when in different environments and can share one strategy I've embraced for doing these recordings with binaural-style mics: foreground, foreground, foreground.

I try to find spots right down in the shore break, preferably with some sort of terrain features against which the final encroachment of the waves can interact.

For me this has meant mangrove roots, gravel of various kinds, rocks or coral, etc.... the goal is to get very close to a universe of small slaps, washes, hisses, sizzles, etc., the 'microfeatures' if you will. Ideally, get *very* close to these (eg, crouched down only 12-18" above the water) and in a place that has a fairly dramatic stereo action — either crossing waves right to left or vice versa, or situated perpendicularly to the break, so it comes in one side and retreats back the way it came.

Assuming you're using omnis the larger wave action and break is generally quite audible in the background, and typically has less high-frequency content and more rumble, which makes it sit nicely as the appropriate 'background.'

This kind of recording definitely provides a 'New Yorker view of the world,' where the microfeatures are disproportionately loud relative to what someone at a normal distance from the break would hear, but it's a much more dynamic and interesting soundscape — not unlike a 'foley' sound approach — then my first naive results, which as you say, tend to approach washes of undistinguished noise.

Personally, I value that the results are still an 'authentic' (i.e. uncomposed) soundscape as well — which is no way to suggest that multi-site recording is not as valid a document of place, just that this method agrees with my philosophy of recording...'