Friday, May 30, 2008

Waves for the Weekend - Something to ride

Looks like Saturday and Sunday will both have little pockets of surfy-ness...the tide and wind will keep it from getting too fun (we couldn't have that could we?) but there will be something to ride if you have the right gear and more importantly the right attitude.

Swellwise we are going to see a mix of S swell (180), some inconsistent background SW energy, and local WNW windswell.

The average areas will be around knee-waist high+. Standout S facing spots, mostly in Orange County, will have some chest-shoulder high sets. The windswell was doing ok at generating some rideable waves on Friday so I expect that to continue at least into Saturday...so look for the standout windswell spots to have some gutless chest high sets.

The tide is probably going to be an issue in the morning...there is a 3'+ high that hits right in the middle of the dawn patrol, which is going to keep things pretty soft and mushy. Shape should improve as it drains off but expect the consistency of the bigger sets to drop off as we head to the low tide as well (we just can't win).

Winds will be mostly light and variable in the morning but there may be some light W flow at the open beaches. Look for W winds 10-15 knots by the late afternoon.

Really the best time to surf will be right as we hit low tide and it starts to fill back in...so we will just have to cross our fingers that the tide wins the race with the wind.

Like most of the week I don't think it will be worth driving very far for surf...the surf-window will be pretty short and the semi-crumbly/choppy shape won't be worth wasting your gas.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

you were right on about friday's forecast starting to get junky mid-morning. it was pretty clean all morning up until 11am. btw the swell forecast alerts are great. i get excited everytime i see a post like that haha.

Anonymous said...

Fri/Sat I scored N.side HB Pier
at the low tide interval.
Surf pulsed up, mixing pretty good
from 2 directions, sparse crowds and fun waves, albeit a bit of wind on
those combo NW/South peaks.
Each day at best tide only, 'up to HH'

RB

Unknown said...

can someone please turn the fan off!