Swell Alert - Northern and Central California (and some SoCal too!)

I know that I usually only just cover the SoCal region in my blog but I do keep an eye on the surf in other parts of California. Looking at the charts today I saw a pretty good swell lining up for Northern and Central California. This will be one of those good long-period swells that arrive groomed up from traveling a few thousand miles and since the storm is a ways off…the swell will arrive without any junky weather.



(QUIKSCAT wind speeds for this storm)


There will be some swell that filters into SoCal but the majority of the energy hits north of Point Conception. Anyway I just thought I would give you a heads up on this swell…maybe a few of you will drive up to score a few.

Here are the details…

Northern and Central California

This WNW swell (285-300+), which is primarily aimed towards Northern and Central California, will start to arrive in those regions late this week and will eventually peak on Saturday and hold into Sunday. Exposed breaks will begin seeing surf increase on Friday, likely going overhead+ on sets before sundown. As the swell peaks we can expect most exposed breaks to see consistent 8-10’+ faces while the standout breaks have sets nearing triple-overhead at times.

Conditions are looking good for this swell. Winds are looking light and variable for the mornings with only light NW winds expected through the afternoons.


Southern California
The WNW swell (290-300+) doesn’t hit SoCal as well as it hits Norcal but it should still put a few fun waves into the exposed beaches. Timing wise the swell will be running about a day behind…so we will see a slow build in swell on Saturday but the peak of the swell will arrive on Sunday and Monday.

Sizewise SoCal will be much smaller. The average spots will have surf in the waist-chest high+ range while the standouts, mostly in San Diego, will have some shoulder-head high+ sets as the swell peaks.

Like NorCal conditions will be pretty good this weekend. Winds will remain light through the mornings and then turn slightly onshore in the afternoons.


P.S. To those of you on my Email List: Sorry about all the posts last night…I had to make multiple entries in order to get those break maps into the right format. I think I will release them a little slower next time.