Friday, February 15, 2008

Surf Break Map: Upper Trestles, Trestles Surf Area, California



Surf Break Map: Upper Trestles

Uppers is one of the most consistent waves at Trestles…and while it isn’t quite Yin to Lowers’ Yang, it is a pretty good ride.

The wave is a long right-hander that breaks along a rocky section of point just to the south of Barb-Wires and Cottons. It breaks on both S-SW and WNW swells but works best on the winter W-WNW’ers. Uppers can be sectiony at times, particularly on bigger swells, but it does consistently crank out some long makeable sections.

Uppers generally works best on a medium- to long-period W-WNW swell (270-285) and it likes to have some water underneath it…not a full blown high tide but at least the tide-push after the low-tide. Enough sand on the sea-floor also plays an important roll in wave shape…years where there has been a ton of run-off, (and the sand berm near the creek has been breached), sand fills in a lot of the imperfections in the rocks that make up the Uppers point helping to smooth out the wave and letting it connect for longer rides.

Spot details
Best swell direction: W-WNW (270-285) and swell S/WNW swell combos
Best Wind: E, light-moderate Santa Ana winds are the best.
Sea Floor: Mix of mostly rock, with some sand and sea-grass
Best Season: Fall, Winter, Spring…but still fun in the summer.
Crowds: While not quite as bad as lowers it does get pretty crowded. Weekends, Santa Ana wind days, and big swells are particularly bad.

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