Friday, February 15, 2008

Waves for the Weekend: Good WNW swell

The WNW swell (285-300) for the weekend is still looking pretty good. We can expect a pretty decent run of waves at the winter spots through both Saturday and Sunday.

We should actually start to see this swell hit our outer nearshore buoys later today and it will fill in along our beaches by tomorrow morning, peaking in the afternoon on Saturday. Expect the swell to hold overnight into Sunday morning before it starts to lose a little steam by Sunday afternoon.

On Saturday and Sunday most WNW facing spots see chest-head high+ surf. Standout breaks in San Diego, Ventura, and the South Bay, will have sets going overhead to a few feet overhead at times.

FYI: Santa Barbara will be a little left out thanks to shadowing from Point Conception. Expect the breaks in the SB area to be smaller, mostly waist-chest high range at the top breaks and smaller as you move further north through the county. It will be clean and fun throughout the county but it will be much smaller than the other areas. Check out the CDIP forecast…see how there is not much energy hitting Santa Barbara.



Weather looks good for the mornings over the weekend as well. Expect mostly light variable winds through the dawn patrols. NW winds build into the 15-20 knot range during the afternoons.

Finding surf this weekend will be pretty easy…just head to the usual winter spots and you will get some sort of waves. If you are looking for bigger surf then San Diego and Northern Baja will probably be the best call…they will have more exposure to the swell and more different types of breaks to choose from. I think the best shape will be at the points and reefs (in all areas), just because there isn’t much to break up this swell. Beach breaks may be a little lined up, and have some current to fight against, but there will be a few corners on the good sandbars there as well.

Hope you score some waves and have a great weekend!

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