Friday – “We should have got a live chicken!”

Since the weather went all squirrelly on Thursday it is sort of jamming up the conditions for the next couple of days. It won’t totally ruin this incoming swell or anything but it will shorten the window of “clean conditions” at a few of the more exposed breaks.

So for Friday…the surf will still be plenty fun. We will have a mix of WNW swells and local windswell in the water. Wave heights will hold around chest-shoulder high+ at most spots while the standout W facing breaks see head high sets. Top regions, like San Diego and Ventura, will have some overhead sets on the low tides.

Conditions are where we may need a little help, maybe some voodoo magic or something. Expect cold N-NE winds to build in through the morning. Spots from Santa Barbara through the South Bay will see these pick up pretty early…maybe even shift more NW by mid-morning…so plan to surf as early as you can.

OC and San Diego will have ENE-NE winds around 10+ knots in the morning but those swiftly shift more N through the morning and will eventually blow onshore out of the NW around 10-20 knots by the afternoon.

Cross your fingers that we can get the winds to hold off before switching onshore…at least until we get to a lower tide mid-morning.

I think you are going to want to check the cams in the morning…especially if you are driving pretty far to get to the surf. Winds will be pretty shifty so expect it to get bumpy quickly. Really your best bet is to head to a more protected break that can handle a little bump.

Swell for the weekend:
That weekend WNW swell that is heading our way hit Hawaii pretty hard today. (If you have a chance to check the cams you will probably be able to see some pretty big surf before sundown.)

This bodes pretty good news for us…it shows that this storm was producing swell at some point so I expect to see NorCal fill in tomorrow and SoCal on Saturday. Check back I will have more details tomorrow.