Tuesday’s Surf – Hodgepodgey…uh yeah I am going to want to wipe that off

Tuesday will be a surf day but conditions and tides will likely hamper shape at times.

We will have a mix of new but steep NW energy (both windswell and longer-period energy) and some S-SW swell.

Average spots will be in the waist-chest high range once we get away from the high tide. Standout breaks in San Diego, Southern Ventura, and the South Bay will have shoulder high sets on the better parts of the tide swing. OC should do ok as well but most of the waves coming through will be from the S-SW rather than the NW’er. (So try to aim for the summer standouts/good combo breaks in the OC). Santa Barbara will be pretty shadowed from all of these swells so look for mostly knee-high and smaller surf through that region.

Weather is looking a bit squirrely…stronger outerwater winds are threatening to spin up the eddy so be on the lookout. As of right now I don’t think that it will be to bad tomorrow morning. Orange County and San Diego County will have a bit of S-SE wind in the morning while Santa Barbara, Ventura, and LA all see variable onshore texture early. All spots see W winds around 10-15 knots develop through the afternoon.

Personally I think that finding great conditions/shape/size tomorrow is going to be difficult. You are going to have to compromise a bit…generally sacrificing size for shape. The tide is going to be a bit high in the morning, which will also add to the general mess of things. I think your best bet is to wait until we get close to the low tide mid-morning and hope that the winds don’t jump on it too hard. If you shoot for the 9-10am timeframe you just might get lucky.

Check out this photo…you can see the eddy starting slightly over the nearshore islands (where the arrows are slowly swinging back to facing the NE).