On a side note I finally got in the water for a fun little session (I was battling a case of the bird-flu for a couple of days and I had to miss out on the beginning of the SW’er)...it wasn’t huge, or that consistent, and the cold water made me die a little inside, but it felt good to actually go somewhere on a wave and throw down a little turn here and there. I saw my friend the rapist-dolphin again...who swam in about 5 feet from me so it looks like I am starting 2009 off right with some more dolphin-love...anyways enough about me.
We are going to see our fun SW’er (190-210) fade out a bit more on Wednesday but a new pulse of WNW swell (285-300 but with most of the energy above 290). The new swell is forecast to arrive throughout the day and show strongest by the afternoon...it looks like the peak periods are going to be around 12-13 seconds so it won’t be super energetic but it will have more push than shorter-period windswell. Look for the swell to look a lot like this...but with a touch less S-SW energy.
Wave heights at the average spots will be around waist-chest high on Wednesday...there will still be enough swell combo out there to get a few peaks at the spots without great NW exposure but you are definitely going to want to check the winter spots if you are looking for size and consistency. The top spots, mostly in Ventura , the South Bay, and San Diego, will be more in the chest-shoulder high range throughout the lower tide in the morning and should start to see some head high sets by the afternoon/evening. (A mix of this WNW swell is expected to hold through most of the week.)
Winds and weather will be a lot like Tuesday, “hace frio” in the morning with light offshore to light/variable morning winds, and then light onshore around 10-12 knots out of the WNW by the afternoon. Mostly sunny skies and a bit on the cool side.
I don’t think that there will be enough swell to drive very far tomorrow but if you live on the border of some of the better exposed regions I would at least give them a check. The low tide in the morning is a bit of a bummer but if you give it a couple of hours the air will warm up and the shape should improve. I think the SD and V-town winter standouts could be pretty fun by late in the afternoon, particularly if the winds lay down a bit after lunch.
Random long-range note...the WNW’er is going to stick around most of the week and should actually get a little bigger over the weekend. If that isn’t good enough it looks like we may see some colder Santa Ana flow setting up for Saturday and Sunday as well.
Here are the tides
05:07AM LST 5.9 H
12:54PM LST -0.7 L
07:24PM LST 3.3 H
11:37PM LST 2.2 L
2 comments:
I didn't go out this morning since it looked like the swell had dropped from Sun/Mon, it was inconsistent and had a little warble, and of course, it was nut freezing cold.
From the look of things, lots of people were watching with beanies on heads & coffees in hands, with a few out in the water, but since everyone has been having fun, there didn't seem to be a lot of takers.
(Of course, this is all relative; 1 week ago every single surfer in SoCal would have been all over it regardless of warble, freezing ass offshores, etc.)
Checked again around noon to see if the new NPac swell was arriving, and the surf actually looked pretty good as the tide drained out.
If the conditions hold, the waves might be good if the tide drops before the wind picks up.
had some good waves today. the reports said 3-4 feet, but i know i caught some 4-6 footers at around noon. why that happened i don't know, but i'm sure glad it did. been way too long since i've had some good waves.
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