Sorry the forecast is lagging. I played a little hooky today and went looking for some surf a little further afield than I usually go…it is definitely nice to surf a point break (or 3) when I am usually locked into the local beach break. Unfortunately I paid for my session by being stuck in traffic hell on the freeway ride home. I will share a few of the photos I snapped in a bit. Anyway, back to Friday.
Friday our mix of WNW energy (275-300 but mostly 285-300) will continue through the day…holding similar or slightly smaller surf at the exposed breaks. Small SSW swell (190-210) will hold in the background. Check this out…this is the “nowcast” from CDIP…so it is showing the current swell mix that we are seeing here on Thursday night.
And this is the same chart but showing the Peak Direction…it is kind of a cool way to look at the swell, though it is telling us a lot of what we already saw in the swell-height image. Looking at this you can see where the W-WNW swell is having some shadowing/energy issues, which is causing the SSW swell to be more dominant. Keep in mind that this is the “peak” direction…not the only swell direction in the mix, so just because the are showing more southerly directions in those areas doesn’t mean that you should ignore the W-WNW swell in the water.
Just thought I would share…got to love the big brains over at CDIP. Here is the forecast for tomorrow morning.
Surfwise the average W-WNW facing spots as well as the OK combo spots will continue to hold in the chest high range with some shoulder high sets pushing through on the manageable parts of the tide swing. The top WNW-NW facing spots will have consistent shoulder-head high surf with some overhead and overhead+ sets still showing inconsistently at times.
Winds will be good on Friday…mostly variable to NE in the morning (so light to light/moderate offshore for many spots and freaking chilly early in the AM). Look for variable onshore winds around midday and watch for another shot at cleaning up conditions as the sun sets in the evening.
Expect for the tide being a bit high I think the surf looks fun tomorrow. Points and Reefs are definitely going to have the best shape…but now that the SSW swell has strengthened a touch it may get a little more peaky at a few of the combo beach breaks, so don’t rule those areas completely out (I would check the points/reefs first though). The high tide peak is getting a little further back from the dawn patrol hours, but it is still sort of awkward…I think your best bet will be to pick spots that can handle more water so you can surf longer…well that or wait till the tide drops in the afternoon and risk the wind picking up too much.
Here are the tides…one more day till Christmas vacation!
12/18/2009 Friday
03:05AM LST 2.4 L
09:10AM LST 5.7 H
04:45PM LST -0.5 L
11:19PM LST 3.6 H
2 comments:
Should have stayed local my friend. I went out after high tide expecting a short session. Boy, was I wrong.
Wind never came up, waves kept getting bigger/better. Overheard some guys joking how how it was 'supposed' to be shoulder-to-head high.
Eventually, people were getting tired and going in, yet the wind stayed offshore till at least 1pm. Last wave in was almost as big as last week.
The sand really got moved around from that last storm. We were way, way outside catching bomb peaks going both ways.
OK, since I'm such a nice guy, I'm guying to provide a friendly PSA: don't bother.
I thought there might enough swell that could power through the high tide, so I braved the cold (47 a few blocks from the pier) and took a look.
Someone must have told someone else about yesterday - all the parking lots looked like Trestles on the first day of a new south.
I sensed there was trouble @ first sight - it was obvious the swell had dropped by a lot. Even worse, the period had shortened up so that even 3 hrs before high tide, it was slow, weak & sectiony.
Today is supposed to be a nice day, so if you're not one of the hordes already in the water (and wishing you weren't), you might want to grab a fish and/or longboard and check it after high tide.
Put away the performance board - it should have had enough of a work out from yesterday.
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