Swellwise we are going to have a mix of mostly leftover S swell (180-190 and still surprisingly workable considering that we are about 6-7 days into the swell)...and some new, but steep NW swell (290-300+)...oh and a touch of local windswell as well.
The S-swell completes me. Maybe I should write it a love note?
Average exposed spots will have waist high surf with a few waist high+ sets. The better exposed combo spots will be more in the waist-chest high range...while the standout combo spots, mostly through San Diego and parts of Orange County, see some inconsistent chest high+ sets.
Winds look good...mostly light and variable through the morning with some patchy fog (so expect a bit of texture at your spot if it is buried by a fog bank). Afternoon winds come onshore out of the WNW around 10-14 knots.
There were definitely a few fun sets still sneaking around on Thursday...and like I said above the S swell had some legs to it...I was a little surprised to see as much size as I did at my local beach break. For Friday though I don’t expect there to be as much energy...it will still be playful but we can expect it to lose a bit more of the punch. Fortunately the windswell comes up slightly...so we could get a little lift from that energy.
In general I would plan on brining your boards/gear that work best in the small-playful size range. I would also try and stick to the better exposed combo spots if you can...just so that you can squeeze the last bit of energy and consistency from this swell mix. The tide might be a little high early in the morning but expect shape to improve as it starts to drop around midmorning/lunchtime. (Cross your fingers that the wind holds off till it drops).
Sunrise
6:30am (civil twilight)
Tides
12:03AM LDT 2.8 L
05:37AM LDT 4.1 H
01:14PM LDT 0.2 L
08:00PM LDT 3.5 H
4 comments:
todays leftovers were goooooood...im still not full though
why did this swell have so much longevity?
i'm actually looking forward to tomorrow morning cuz even at sunset my local beach break was sending in some beautiful sets. I went there to watch the sunset with a lady friend and I could have kicked myself for not bringing my board. I watched with jealousy as guys were carving all over beautiful lefts and rights. I was on it this morning but, in all honesty, it seemed better this evening.
the storms that produced the swell had a lot of things going for it.
Really the top 3 were:
1. It was in a great position. Swells that come right up the pipe from the 180-190 angle don't have to pass through any of the SPAC islands, they have less shadowing from the nearshore islands when they arrive, and the storms are just a bit closer in overall distance compared to SW'ers.
2. The storm moved the right way...basically the storm made the really good south-to-north movement with the key area of fetch right towards our area (really it was aimed more at Mexico/Central America but it had a lot of excess stuff aimed at Socal). This helps the wind stick over the same stretch of water that it has already put some energy into...giving it an extra push, adding both more size and consistency to the swell.
3. The size and length of the fetch were both very good. Size matters in swell production...so the longer and wider fetch helped keep more wind over the sea-state that it had produced. The length of the fetch sort of acts like a rifle barrel, adding more energy as the swell travels through it. It helped too that there were several embedded fronts in the fetch, each one moving the same direction and help energizing the wind.
Basically all of these factors helped the storm to overcome the fact that it didn't have stellar "top" wind speeds, (it never really got much over 45 knots). Add it the movement and duration of the fetch and it really helped the swell go from being a 1-2 day event to being a 6-7 one.
I hope we get more like it.
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