Thursday's Surf - Combo Fun meal with a side of high-tide weaksauce

Thursday will be a surf day...but we will get mowed by another high tide during the morning. The one that hit today practically turned everything into shorebreak during the dawn patrol. Even spots that can usually handle a higher tide. I expect it to do the same again tomorrow.

Swellwise we are going to have a continuing mix of SW swell (200-220) and some WNW energy (285-300).

Most spots will have surf in waist-chest high+ range while the standout spots, mostly in San Diego and a few of the other good combo swell areas, will have surf in the chest-shoulder high range with a few shoulder high+ sets on the lower tides.

Winds look good...mostly light and variable through the morning and then staying on the light side with just a touch of NW flow (around 5-10 knots) for the afternoon.

I think that a midday surf is going to be the best call tomorrow...the tide is going to mush-burger everything out in the morning but shape does improve once it starts to drop. I would probably aim for somewhere in the middle of the tide swing just so you don't get drained out by the negative tide in the afternoon (seriously can we get a break here!). The combo beach breaks will be the best shapewise but the points/reefs should be fun as well.

Here are the tides

01:48AM LST 1.7' Low
07:58AM LST 6.8' High
03:21PM LST -1.2' Low
09:41PM LST 3.9' High

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Bonus Forecast! - Some Long Range Notes

Going a little further out in the forecast I noticed a couple of nice things lining up. First off we are going to see a light-moderate Santa Ana flow for Friday and Saturday...it won't be bad windwise but we can expect some offshore flow for most areas, particularly in the mornings, and warmer air temps once the sun gets up.

We are also going to have a new shot of WNW swell (280-300) that moves in on Saturday, starting to peak in the afternoon and then holding strong in Sunday/Monday before fading. Right now this looks good for some consistent shoulder-head high surf at the winter spots (if the tide cooperates) and some overhead sets at the standouts. Check out the wavewatch.com 7-day forecast model. This is for San Diego so the arrival time is a little behind what Ventura would see.



Here are the winds for Saturday as well



Also to make things even better it looks like Sunday/Monday we are going to get another little shot of S-SSW swell that could help to break up the WNW'er. Man I love combo swells!

Check back I will have more details as we move into the weekend.