Surf for Friday – Go away wind!

Friday has potential to be a surf day...but the winds and the high midday tide are going to sort of give us the shaft.

We have some new S swell (180-190) filling in on top of the first small pulse we had limp in over the last couple of days...we are also going to see some steady local NW windswell mix with some background WNW energy helping to cross up some of the better exposed breaks. Check out the CDIP from this afternoon...



Friday’s surf looks like it could be fun if the wind cooperates...the average spots with S facing exposure will be in the waist-chest high range. The standout S facing spots and the good combo breaks will have some chest-shoulder high sets...and a few bigger sets sneaking through before sundown.

Northern LA County will have a few issues picking up the S swell thanks to blockage from nearshore islands...so the Malibu/Dume looks like it will be pretty shadowed...this is going to be an issue all the way through this swell. There will be a few small waves but it will be consistently smaller than the other S-exposed regions. I only mention it because the region is usually associated with Southern Hemi swells...and it isn’t going to get too much from this one.

Winds are what I am the most worried about...right now tomorrow’s conditions look “unstable” which mean they could tip either way...we could get lucky and have light/variable to even light offshore flow early...or the onshore bump will just hold through tonight into the morning. I actually think that it is going to vary spot by spot...sort of a swirly pattern...so we are going to need to keep an eye on the flags/trees/smokestacks/neighbors stupid wind vane and cross our fingers that we get lucky. Check out the COAMPS for tomorrow at about 8am...I am not super confident in this forecast...but it at least gives us some sort of idea of what this computer thinks.



Personally I am going to get up early and start checking the buoys and wind models like the COAMPS...

http://www.weatherflow.com/navair/analysis.html

and see how things are doing before the sun comes up...if it looks halfway decent I will try and get a quick run down to the beach. If you have to drive a ways for waves I might wait till there is enough light to see conditions on the surf cams. S facing spots are going to be the best tomorrow...but you might want to stick with breaks that have some protection from the wind.

Here are the tides...

Sunrise: 6:40am (civil twilight)
05:29AM LDT -0.1 L
11:22AM LDT 4.1 H
05:11PM LDT 0.8 L
11:21PM LDT 5.2 H