Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Thursday’s Surf – Finally some swell

Thursday will be a surf day…fun but not epic or anything… we are just finally going to see a decent mix of swell and conditions come together (now if the tides could just shape up).

We are going to have a mix of peaking WNW-NW swells, both a short-period windswell and some medium-period energy from a little further off the coast…the energy will be spread over the 280-300 degree range but the strongest portion will be in the 290-300 degree spread. SW swell (200-220) pulses up slightly in the background but doesn’t add a ton of new size to the exposed spots.



Look for the average WNW-NW facing spots to hold in the waist-chest high range with some inconsistent shoulder high sets pushing through at the average spots more exposed to the NW. The more protected regions in Santa Barbara and North LA County will be more in the knee-chest high range…less consistent on the bigger sets.

Better WNW-NW facing spots in Ventura and the South Bay will be in the chest-head high range…with a few bigger sets on the lower tides.

Top NW facing breaks in San Diego, mostly central and south SD, will be in the shoulder-head high+ range again with some overhead+ sets mixing in on the lower tides.

Winds look good across Socal…with light/variable to light-moderate offshore in the morning. The wind prone areas of Santa Barbara/Ventura/LA could have gusts up around 15-20 knots at times. Look for light winds through the afternoon…slightly onshore around 5-8 knots…maybe stronger in a few areas. Hopefully they will hold off enough to let us get some low-tide waves late in the day.



The swell is on the way in though I wish it was a little more westerly so it would show more size in more spots…but hey you have to work with what we got and we will have some playful/decent size at the well-exposed spots. Spots that like the shorter-period swells (10-14 second stuff) and have good NW exposure will be the best call. Really, if the tide wasn’t so funky (with the 5.5’+ high right smack during the midmorning)…I would say that this swell would be worth driving a little further for…but as it is I don’t think that you should pile too many extra miles on your search…unless of course there is a really good NW spot an extra 20 min down the road.

Here are the tides…hope you get a few tomorrow…let me know how it was.

11/19/2009 Thu
03:12AM LST 2.6 L
09:23AM LST 5.7 H
05:08PM LST -0.2 L
11:52PM LST 3.4 H

Links for the regional forecasts…

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

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Can you please provide a link to the NRL COAMPS maps that you show? All that I can find are the ones on SCCOOS and they are not nearly as detailed.

Anonymous said...

Impeccable conditions - the best so far this year.