Waves for the weekend – Sloppy Saturday but cleaning up Sunday

Overall it won’t be a great weekend surfwise…Saturday looks pretty sloppy most of the day as the onshore winds continue to hamper shape/conditions. Sunday, however, looks bit cleaner as winds go offshore…hopefully there will be enough windswell hanging around to make it worth getting wet.

Swellwise on Saturday we can expect a mix of holding WNW-NW windswell and some background SW swell (200-220). The windswell will peak through the morning and then rebuild again in the afternoon as the winds get going.



For the surf on Saturday, expect the average spots to hold around knee-waist high…since the majority of the windswell energy will just be skipping past breaks that don’t have excellent NW exposure. Those top NW facing spots, mostly through San Diego, but up in parts of Ventura and the South Bay as well, will be in the waist-chest high range with some shoulder high+ sets sneaking through at times. Shape does not look very good thanks to those winds…but there may be a short early morning window where the bump isn’t so bad…don’t drive very far to check it, but if you live close you might at least give the cameras a quick run through in the early morning.

Winds on Saturday will be a bit of a mixed bag in the morning. NW flow will continue to push into Santa Barbara/Ventura early in the day…while LA/OC/SD all see more light/variable flow for the morning. Nothing looks really clean but like I said there may be a few pockets of surf hiding out through the early morning. NW winds 10-20 knots will blow through the area by the afternoon.



Sunday the WNW-NW windswell will be fading pretty fast while the weak SW’er continues to limp into the best exposed spots.



Sunday the windswell will be fading fast as those winds turn offshore and start to knock it down…but it looks like we will hang onto a few waves for the morning. Look for more knee-waist high surf at the average exposed spots. The standout NW facing breaks, again in those best SD/VEN/South Bay areas, will be in the waist-chest high range with some rare plus sets early in the day…but expect the bigger sets to fade out by the afternoon.

The offshore flow for Sunday is starting to back down its intensity a bit in the forecast…still I am expecting light-moderate offshore flow for the morning with the stronger gusts holding around the passes and canyons in Northern LA and Ventura Counties. Look for clean morning surf and then building NW winds 10-15 knots moving back in by the afternoon.



So…the surf won’t be great this weekend…but it won’t be flat either, just sort of sucky. I definitely wouldn’t spend a lot of time/money/gas driving around looking for waves, but if you are just a short drive from the beach you might want to at least give the cams a quick morning check, or stage a drive-by on the way to get some donuts…(particularly on Sunday)…you might be able to find a little peak worth getting wet for.

Here are the tides…

11/14/2009 Sat
12:30AM LST 1.2 L
06:44AM LST 6.1 H
01:47PM LST -0.4 L
07:50PM LST 4.0 H

11/15/2009 Sun
01:05AM LST 1.6 L
07:15AM LST 6.3 H
02:28PM LST -0.7 L
08:38PM LST 3.9 H

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/