Waves for the Weekend – more WNW-NW swell…a little wind

This will be a surf weekend…though the wind may not cooperate all that well on Saturday...fortunately the swell peaks on Sunday.

Over the weekend we are going to see a mix of building WNW-NW swell…it will get a slow start Saturday morning, so we can expect fun but smaller surf for the dawn patrol. The swell fills in more by Saturday afternoon and eventually peaks throughout the day on Sunday before fading slowly through the beginning of next week.



On Saturday the average spots are going to start off around waist high…maybe a couple of chest high sets at the better-than-average spots with NW exposure. The top breaks will be more in the chest high range with an inconsistent shoulder high set now and then. By the afternoon I expect the average spots to be a steady chest high…with the standout NW facing spots, particularly those up around Ventura, to be hitting shoulder-head high on the sets.



Winds on Saturday look a bit funky…the remnants of the cold front pushing through the area will bring on those NW winds that generally follow behind the front. These NW’ers may spin up the eddy for the morning…so it looks like San Diego and OC will have some southerly winds…hopefully below 10-knots…while Santa Barbara and Ventura pull some early NW flow. Like in most eddies…Los Angeles, particularly the South Bay, will be the cleanest area. NW winds 10-15+ knots move in through the afternoon.



Sunday the WNW-NW swell peaks…and average spots move into the consistent chest-shoulder high range with some less consistent head high sets. The standout WNW-NW facing breaks…spots that are nice and open to the (280-300) degree swell window…will be in the shoulder-head high+ range, with a few of the really good NW breaks going a couple of feet overhead at times. Look for pretty consistent surf throughout the day.



Winds look much better on Sunday. Mostly light and variable to light offshore throughout Socal. Look for NW winds around 10-12 knots with gusts nearly 15 at the normally windy spots.

This weekend looks fun…maybe a little slow early on Saturday but still rideable at the better exposed breaks. Really Sunday is going to be your best bet…the conditions will be nice as the swell peaks. I would check the points/reefs first on this swell…since there isn’t much to break it up they will have better shape. If you don’t have one near you…well it might be worth driving a little further to a spot that can hold a better wave, if that isn’t an option then try and find a pier/jetty/sandbar to groom up the shape a little.

Here are the tides…have a good weekend!

11/21/2009 Sat
12:56AM LST 3.4 H
04:26AM LST 3.0 L
10:37AM LST 4.9 H
06:43PM LST 0.4 L

11/22/2009 Sun
02:08AM LST 3.5 H
05:30AM LST 3.2 L
11:24AM LST 4.5 H
07:36PM LST 0.7 L

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/