Friday, September 11, 2009

Waves for the Weekend – who ordered the combo platter with a side of funk?

Both Saturday and Sunday look like surf days...nothing spectacular...but at least rideable.

We have a bunch of overlapping swells pushing in over the weekend. On Saturday we can expect a mix of tropical S-SW swell (190-215), building local NW windswell, and some minor energy from the SW coming out of the Southern Hemisphere. On Sunday the tropical energy will back down but it will be replaced by a new NW swell (290-300) that builds in through the morning and begins peaking by the afternoon. Look for the NW energy and some more background SW energy to continue into early next week.





Finding the well exposed spots will be little tricky this weekend, mostly because the SW energy (tropical and the longer-period stuff from the S.hemi) will be more dominant on Saturday, but by Sunday the NW swell moves in and takes over, shifting the larger waves to the best exposed NW winter spots.

On average we can expect waist high surf at most spots on Saturday...with waist-chest high sets at the better exposed breaks. Top SW facing spots, particularly those with a bit of combo exposure, will be more consistently in the waist-chest high+ range with a few bigger shoulder high sets on the lower tides.

Sunday the SW’ers drop off a touch while the new, playful sized NW swell (290-300) fills in throughout the day. Look for the average breaks (both SW and NW) to hold around waist high+. The standout NW facing spots, as well as the excellent combo breaks, will be consistently around the chest-shoulder high range. The best breaks that can really focus the NW energy will be a touch bigger on the sets. Look for the biggest waves through the San Diego, Ventura, and South Bay areas...but with the combo still out in the water it looks like rideable waves showing in most areas.

Winds look a tad funky...(of course the wind tries to screw with us the second we get waves...where was all the wind when it was flat? Stupid wind.)...the forecast models are indicating some light onshore W flow in the mornings. It looks like it will stay under 5-knots for most areas, which isn’t bad, but there may be some texture/bump at the most exposed spots. What I am hoping is that models are overcalling the wind-speeds and that we will be more in the “light/variable” range in the morning. You can increase your odds of getting cleaner conditions by heading to spots that offer up some protection from the wind.

Saturday morning winds


Sunday morning winds


Personally, since we do have some swell in the water, I will probably take a little extra time looking for surf this weekend. I don’t think I will be driving any sort of real distance...the swell mix just isn’t that great...but I will probably spend a few extra-minutes looking in some nooks and crannies closer to home and see if I can find a little combo peak without too many guys on it. If you live a ways away from the beach you might want to give the cams/buoys/winds a check on the computer before burning down to the beach just in case the tides and winds are killing your spots.

Here are the tides...hope you guys score a few!

Saturday
03:40PM LDT 5.1 H
11:58PM LDT 0.3 L

Sunday
07:04AM LDT 3.6 H
11:03AM LDT 3.0 L
05:08PM LDT 5.4 H

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Funkadonkulous!
Coconutz!

Unknown said...

that might be the most perfect word ever

Anonymous said...

I've been staring at SL's new HD cams while watching the NW swell fill-in.

Yesterday it was picture perfect 6ft North Shore (Sunset), but today it's typically terrible HB (and SoCal in general).

Parmenter was right when he characterized us fools as seagulls fighting over garbage scraps.

Anonymous said...

Feel free to use it in your posts, i owe you big time for all your posts, and though I click ads, it is not enough.
It was Funkadonkulous again in Newps on Saturday, unfortunately. I hope sunday can break into more positive but still creative adjetives like impovedalicious
peaks or something.
Thanks again AW, I hope you and the family are doing ok, with no more wave wavebiatch income,
Coconutz!

Anonymous said...

*IMPROVEDALICIOUS*
Coco-

Anonymous said...

there was 4-5 ft perfect peaks somewhere in north oc with nobody on em viewable from pch at 11 am today

Anonymous said...

Shhhh, keep driving nothing to see here