Surf for Monday – Building SW’er and more local windswell

Monday is looking surfable…but I think that the combo of higher morning tides and variable onshore winds will keep it from being a real surf day.

In the water we are going to see a mix of building SW swell (200-220) coming in from the Southern Hemisphere and increasing local NW windswell. We will also have some background S swell and weak W swell still sort of lingering from the weekend…but definitely dropping off as we move through the day.



Wave heights will hold around the waist-chest high range at the “average” exposed breaks…basically spots that have only partial exposure to the swell mix…but I wouldn’t be surprised to see a chest high+ set at those areas on the lower tides. Standout NW facing spots, mostly through San Diego, and the good NW/SW combo spots, will be in the waist-shoulder high range for the most part…but again it looks like there could be a few bigger sets as the tides get lower and the swell builds more into the afternoon.

Winds don’t look great tomorrow…NW winds are expected to blow pretty hard through the outer waters and spin up the eddy closer to the coast. Expect NW winds around 5-10 knots to blow through most of Santa Barbara and Ventura (possibly out towards North LA as well) through the morning. Orange County and San Diego will have more of a variable onshore flow…slightly southerly by mid-morning…but winds will be a bit lighter…more around the 5-knot range. All areas will have building onshore WNW-NW winds around 10-15+ knots by the afternoon.



So for tomorrow…I do think that there will still be enough swell in the water to have some fun…nothing great by any means but still crossed up enough to keep both the beach breaks, and the better reefs/points, fairly rideable. Like I said…the winds and the tides are going to be the biggest downer…but we might be able to sneak out early enough to grab a few before the tide swamps it out. If you can I would try and get on it as close to sunrise as you can, see if you can beat the winds and the tides, and hopefully grab a few semi-clean ones before the afternoon onshores tear it up.

Here are the tides…

03:40AM LDT 1.5 L
09:46AM LDT 6.2 H (ouch)
04:55PM LDT -0.5 L
11:06PM LDT 4.0 H