Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Wednesday – a shot at some waves

Wednesday could be a surf day...it just depends on your tolerance for high-tide burgers and hepatitis A through F.

We will still have plenty fading but still fun-sized WNW-NW energy in the water...mostly short-period storm-swell leftovers but still rideable at the right spots. Size will be gradually dropping throughout the day but I think that overall shape will actually improve (and the surf seem bigger) as the tide drops through midday/afternoon...the winds may get to it before it has much of a chance to improve though.



Sizewise we can expect some waist-chest high+ surf at the average W facing breaks. Top spots, mostly at the better NW facing breaks in Ventura and San Diego, will have shoulder head high sets, which will get a little less consistent through the afternoon.

Winds look OK...some of the forecasts are calling for SE-ESE winds through the morning...but honestly thanks to that huge shot of cold-ass air that nearly froze my teats off this morning I think that morning winds will be more light/variable than anything. (That is actually what ended up happening on Tuesday...the cold air steamrolled the leftover wind gradient setting up variable to almost offshore winds for some areas through the morning. As a forecaster there is nothing like calling for wind and then having Mother Nature step up and hose you down overnight...anyway enough about my problems). I do expect some moderate onshore breeze through the afternoon.

Personally I am probably going to skip the surf tomorrow...I get enough germs from my kids I don’t need to give myself an extra-shot of the poo-water bird flu...but that is just me. I think that there will be a bunch of mushy, scattered peaks at the standouts beach breaks, probably some nice sideways current too thanks to all the stacked up shape. The points/reefs may be a bit funky but if you can find a spot that likes the shorter-period swell it could still be pretty fun.

Here are the tides...

03:57AM LST 0.7 L
09:49AM LST 5.5 H
04:27PM LST -0.6 L
10:40PM LST 4.9 H

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Thanks Adam, keep up the good work!

p.s. Swamis was claimed to be 10' faces by a straight shooter this morning.

Unknown said...

yeah I could definitely see that.

I usually try and keep a bit conservative on the stormy windswells since a lot of the size can erode out of a swell the second the onshore winds stop blowing.

But with as much wind (and background energy) still in the water late on Monday night and early Tuesday morning I bet there was some hefty size still pushing through for the dawn patrol. There was even some decent size up here in the OC...nothing like that, but still overhead at times.

Thanks for the heads up!

Anonymous said...

believe it or not, i tried my luck at coronado today (had to be there for a meeting anyway) and it was alright. glassy, no wind until noon, and very consistent 3-4 footers. fun little pre-work session.

Anonymous said...

I skipped Harbor jetties and Swarmis because the hepatitis. I drove over to Campgrounds about noon...consistent shoulder high waves and wind wasn't even that bad. Any chance of the wind laying down a little tonight for the dawn patrol tomorrow?

Anonymous said...

it's been great in north oc the past two mornings

Anonymous said...

10 foot faces at Swami's; yeah right. Blacks was barely 10 faces Sunday and it was much larger then . . . .

Anonymous said...

I was at pipes this morning and it was major funk, and swamis definitely wasn't 10 feet. But it was weird, at my house there was no wind, but at the beach there was a ton! How??