Wednesday’s Waves – Getting funky now

So I was just going over the WX charts for tomorrow and even though the storm is moving over Southern California it does look like we might have a couple of surf pockets. I think it will be a far cry from a surf day but if you have the day off, don’t mind rain or potentially poop filled water, then you might get a chance to snag a couple of waves.

We are going to have a mix of medium-short period W-WNW storm swell, some slightly longer-period NW energy, and some building S swell (180-190). On a side note I got out and caught a couple of waves at the local beach break (on Tuesday afternoon) and the S swell was doing most of the work…the tide was low, and there was a little west crossing it up, but a few of the sets were legit shoulder high+ on the face. There was no real point to that story except to say that the S swell was doing ok at sending in some inconsistent sets. Hopefully it will just get bigger as it combos up with the W energy.



On Wednesday the average spots will be in the waist-chest high+ range. The standout S facing breaks, standout WNW facing spots, and the good combo breaks will be in the shoulder-head high range on sets. Shape will be funky for most areas but winds should be swirling out of the S-SE so there will be some spots that will have semi-rideable waves.

These spots should not be hard to find…just grab a map and a pencil. Align the pencil so that the tip is pointing to the NW…that is the direction the wind is going to be blowing. Hold the pencil over the coastline and if the pencil is perpendicular to a beach then there is a good chance it will be clean(er) than other spots. That is my poor man’s MacGyver forecast tip of the day.

Winds tomorrow are going to be the funky part…basically they are going to be all over the place as the storm front moves over the area and starts to move inland. If the front hasn’t arrived or is just starting to, then winds will be S-SE…if it has passed your area then you are likely to get the W-NW clearing winds that follow a front. Want to see what I mean about “all over the place”…this is the COAMPS forecast for Wednesday morning…



According to this model SB has some WNW winds, but light. North LA, the South Bay, and North OC see N winds. And San Diego gets a mix of S winds for North SD and WNW winds for the South SD area. Freaking weird.

What this really means is…keep in mind that there may be some surf tomorrow in almost any area. Check the cams, call the lifeguard reports, and look out the window. If the swell holds, the tide drops, and the winds cooperate we might get a few waves before the holiday.

Here are the tides…good luck!

01:11AM LST 2.1 L
07:21AM LST 6.0 H
02:47PM LST -0.5 L
09:07PM LST 3.6 H