Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Wednesday's Waves - Combo swell surfing on Hump Day

Wednesday is looking like a surf day...but we will have to work around the 6'+ high tide that buries us around 9:30am.

We are going to have a mix of new SSW swell (190-200) and WNW swell (290-300) as well as a touch of local NW windswell. Here is a shot of the swell mix starting to fill in this afternoon on the CDIP model...(try and ignore the swell periods and directions sometimes the model does screwy things when it averages swells together).



Surfwise the average exposed breaks will be in the waist-chest high range on the lower tides. Ventura and the LA South Bay will be a bit more in the chest high+ range thanks to better exposure to the WNW swell. (Santa Barbara is looking smaller than most areas due to the steep angle of the WNW swell and the blockage by the channel islands).

Standout combo surf spots, mostly in San Diego, will have surf in the chest-shoulder high range with some head high sets mixing in on the better tides as well. Orange County will be similar in size but mostly off the SSW swell rather than the WNW/SW combo that San Diego sees so try and pick your spots accordingly.

Weather and winds are looking pretty decent tomorrow...the Santa Ana flow is expected to back down (maybe give the fire teams a break thankfully) but we will still see some light offshore to light and variable winds through the morning. Onshore bump starts to pick up around midday and will eventually top out around 10-15 knots out of the W-NW during the afternoon.

Since we will be seeing a combo swell tomorrow that has some democratic swell angles almost all areas will be able to pick up some waves from either of the SSW/WNW swell directions. I think the tide is going to be a bit of deal-breaker in the morning though which sucks...there may be a few spots that can power through the 6' high tide but I would even plan on those spots being pretty soft. I wish the tide was a little further back in the morning (or we had an earlier sunrise) but I can wish to win the lotto too but it doesn't mean that it is going to happen. Oh well, cross your fingers that we can get past the high tide peak before the wind starts to get too bad.

Tides for Wednesday

03:22AM 1.2' Low
09:27AM 6.3' High (brutal!)
04:26PM -0.6' Low
10:33PM 4.3' High

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Adam, what do you mean when you always refer to the "standout combo" spots? I love your blog and look at it now everyday, but I don't know what that term means. Thanks in advance.

pushingtide said...

Can you please tell me where to go tomorrow? I need to know what combo means, where I should go to use the least amount of gas, and if the spot I am picking will have a good sandbar this week. Thanks!

(Not giving you shit Adam, just some of your feed me feed me feed me lazy followers)

Anonymous said...

Is there a NO KOOKS INQUIRY law?!?!

Unknown said...

Nah...we are all kooks at heart. Everybody is welcome at this site even if you have been surfing 20 years or just started, I want it to be fun for everyone.

The combo spots...well I am not going to go out and name breaks, (I probably want to surf there too), but they are pretty easy to find. Just look at that CDIP map that I posted in the blog today. It has both WNW and SSW energy showing on it.

Look for where those different swells cross up and show the most energy. It doesn't get down to the super small details but if you know the spots in the area you should have a decent idea of what will be breaking. Use that map to narrow your search...but you still need to put in a little legwork to get the "best" spots. I'll give you a hit...the 6' tides swamp out most reefs and points. You are going to want to stick with spots that have some really shallow sandbars or something to help focus the swell energy through deeper water.

Yong Jung Shin said...

hahaha

Murph said...

Huntington Pier picks up every swell, everybody should go there!

Anonymous said...

Without really giving anything away, here's a little bit of free advice for inexperienced surfers: "standout combo spots" are popular for a reason.

Pretty profound, no? So, where are the popular spots? You really need to ask? (Hint: take a look at Adam's list.)

Anonymous said...

I enjoy kooks. They smile, are generally polite, and usually just as psyched to be out there as anyone else. Kooks are refreshing presence in any lineup filled with grown men acting like they're in a junior high clique that only includes people who surf well. Besides, compared to Kelly, aren't we all kooks?

Anonymous said...

Well said in the last post... but forget Slater... I'll say "but compared to Adam, aren't we all kooks?"

Anonymous said...

Adam is the Kelly of Socal forecasting.