Tide

The twice-daily vertical rise and fall of the sea, four to six feet on the Grand Strand.

The tide lifts and lowers the whole playing field on a roughly six hour, twelve minute beat: two highs and two lows most days. Height is the tide; the horizontal flow it drives, ebb out, flood in, is the current.

Every shallow-water decision here is really a tide decision: which creeks exist, how much sandbar is showing, how hard the inlet is working, and how much water will be under you on the way home.

Two highs and two lows most days. The vertical rise and fall is the tide; the horizontal flow it drives is the current, ebbing out and flooding in.

On this water: Four to six feet of range means the geography honestly changes twice a day. Locals check the tide table the way drivers check fuel.

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