Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Surf for Thursday – Building NW windswell (and the winds to go with it)

Thursday does not look like much of a surf day.

Local WNW-NW windswell will start to build on Thursday afternoon/evening as a weak cold front moves in from the outer waters brining along blustery NW winds. Leftover NW swell (290-300) and weak SW swell (200-220) will hold most of the day then move into the background as the windswell increases.



Mostly small surf will continue to push through during the morning on Thursday…look for the average spots to hold in the knee high range with some inconsistent waist high+ sets showing during the lower tides. Standout NW facing breaks in Ventura, the South Bay, and San Diego, will be in the waist-high range with some chest high sets.

The building windswell will start to add some size to the most exposed NW spots of Santa Barbara/Ventura later in the day…not much really…just a little bump before sundown. Expect this windswell to increase overnight into Friday morning.

The morning doesn’t look particularly clean on Thursday…NW winds will be piling up a few miles off the coast and should come onshore fairly quickly. There may be a little pocket during the dawn patrol…sort of light/variable flow in the more protected areas…and light onshore at the more open spots. NW winds will build in quick by midmorning and will eventually hit the 10-15+ knot range for most areas, while Santa Barbara and Ventura see gusts hitting in the 20+ knot range. Here is a shot of the COAMPS for Thursday morning…



Hmmm…small morning leftovers with some light bump…or building windswell slop with stiff NW winds…for some reason neither sound that appealing to me…I think I might stay in and surf my pillow a little longer. If you have to surf…well bring the small wave gear in the morning, and try and find a protected/sheltered spot for the afternoon (and still plan on bringing the small wave gear). It looks pretty breezy for the next couple of days…but we may see some clean up for the weekend…hopefully the windswell will hold on long enough to have something to ride once the conditions even out.

Here are the tides…

11/12/2009 Thursday
05:39AM LST 5.5 H
12:18PM LST 0.7 L
06:02PM LST 4.2 H
11:54PM LST 1.0 L

Links for the regional forecasts…

Santa Barbara - http://socalforecastsb.blogspot.com/
Ventura - http://socalforecastven.blogspot.com/
Los Angeles - http://socalforecastla.blogspot.com/
Orange County - http://socalforecastoc.blogspot.com/
San Diego - http://socalforecastsd.blogspot.com/

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

is it me or does it seem that for the last year or so the conditions r nicer on weekends? what up? sucks.