Friday, February 27, 2009

Waves for the Weekend – some surf, some wind, a little rain

There will be some waves this weekend. Nothing great overall, but it will be surfable if you keep an open mind.

Weather is going to remain a little unstable...there some sort of upper-level disturbance that moves through the area over the next couple of days, potentially setting up some rain on Sunday/Monday but “not effecting the wind that much” according to some forecasts. Usually when this happens it means sort of fluky winds, sometimes onshore, sometimes swirly, sometimes glassy...it just sort of depends on how you catch it and how exposed your surf spot is. I think it is going to be another couple of days of needing to sacrifice your swell exposure for wind protection (which is a crap deal if I ever heard of one)...so keep that in mind.

Swellwise we are going to see the mix of leftover WNW energy, some long-period, but shadowed NW swell, and some new/inconsistent SW swell (205-220 which means it gets shadowing from both the SPAC islands and the nearshore ones). The WNW-NW energy will be bigger on Saturday and the SW energy will be bigger on Sunday.



We are going to continue to see the average surf spots hold waves in the waist to occasionally chest high range. Standout combo spots, mostly through South OC and San Diego, see some chest-chest high+ sets...maybe even a couple of shoulder high waves on the lower tides.

Winds, like I mentioned will be swirly...I would look for lighter more variable wind through the morning and mostly W winds around 10-12 knots through the afternoon. The chance of some patchy fog on Saturday and some light showers on Sunday. I would try and stick with the spots that can pull in some of the swell but still have a little shelter from the potential bump.

Here are the tides...

Saturday
04:59AM LST 0.6 L
10:46AM LST 3.7 H
04:38PM LST 1.0 L
10:57PM LST 5.0 H

Sunday
05:54AM LST 0.6 L
11:41AM LST 3.1 H
05:02PM LST 1.4 L
11:36PM LST 5.0 H

Is it just me or has this winter been particularly sucky? Just going over my notes and looking at the posts I have throw together...and I feel like this winter has sucked so far. Has it sucked for you guys too?

I keep seeing photo slideshows on other websites that try and make it sound like there has been great surf in SoCal for the last couple of months, we just needed to have no jobs and sit at the beach all day long to score a perfect 15 minute (of good lighting) session. I personally have had a couple of fun sessions but they seem to pale compare to winters-past. Am I just getting old and bitter? Do you guys have any thoughts on the state of the winter?

15 comments:

plcasey1 said...

It has been pretty lame, overall. I did score some BIG surf in Maui last month.

Danimal said...

It has been a lame winter. Fall was great.

But, with a job, options are limited. I'm sure if I could cruise around all day I could find waves.

With a good photographer, you can make almost any day look fun with photos.

Unknown said...

Thanks Danimal ;/

Anonymous said...

Anything SOuth of L.A. has been pretty Lame! Anything North was pretty decent! A lot of those pictures were taken mostly in central and Northern Cali.

Anonymous said...

You're totally right, Adam. I've had some fun days, but overall it has not been good at all. I've found that most everything has been off. For example, when swell height has been good, the tides are whacked. Or when conditions look like they are going to be okay for my spot(s), the wind gets on it and creates chaos, etc, etc, etc. And, to be honest, I've been friggin freezing in the lineup. So tired of the fullsuit and crappy winter sessions. I'm 36, live in south San Diego, and have been surfing since I was 12, and without a doubt this is one of the worst surfing winters I've lived through.

cheerupcheerio said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
cheerupcheerio said...

Yeah, it has been a depressing winter for sure! We never got our huge-at-least-once-a-year winter swell this year. Last year's December 5th big Wednesday was crazyness.

Declan X said...

I've had the same experience as Hugh. Nothing really seemed to line up just right for an epic day. Just a few fun sessions here and there, but nothing to remember.

Woody said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Santa Barbara county has SUCKED this year; some are saying worst in the last 20 years.

Anonymous said...

While it definitely has been one of the worst winters on record, at least the OC will get a chance to shine. That is, within 6-8 weeks, it should break with various size/quality during the 6 next mos all the way through to Oct.

The SPac is a mighty big ocean and any swell it generates eventually finds its way to these shores. Of course, this is bread & butter time for surf forecasters who get to track the storms 7-10 days in advance.

Anonymous said...

It has been clearly noticable this anemic winter season that Surfwhine definitely overhypes, misrepresents with one out of a thousand photos making things look better than it is. After your local beach gets featured the number of visiting surfers skyrockets. Happened to me last summer at the CoNB,
Thanks for not being like them AW!
Coconutz!

Greg Lantz said...

agreed. north county san diego has been painful. over the last month i've woken up at 6am to see the surf knee high and/or blown out more than i ever want to see again. puke!

Anonymous said...

no question, the worst winter ever!

Anonymous said...

I'm paying rent for this?! Super lame winter.