Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Waves for Wednesday – Cleaning up and getting a little NW’erly

Wednesday will be a surf day.

Our swell mix, which starts off sort of W-WNW, will shift more NW’erly and drop throughout the day…look for the morning swell direction to be about 275-300, and the by the afternoon it will have shifted more to the 290-300 range. Small SSW swell (190-210) will hold in the background.

Check out how the swell shifts and fades through the day…









Surf size is really going to depend on where you are located and when you surf tomorrow. San Diego will stay fairly big all day, with most of the energy hitting through Southern SD. Average spots in that county will be around chest-head high while the standout NW spots see some overhead+ sets mixing in.

The NW spots up towards Ventura and a lot of the South Bay…will be more in the chest-shoulder high range with some head high and head high+ sets through the morning but the steeper swell angle and dropping energy will start to shave off some size by the afternoon.

The lesser exposed spots, like most of the breaks through Orange County, Santa Barbara, and North LA, will be in the waist-chest high range but with a few more consistent chest-shoulder high sets through the morning. These areas, because of the more northerly swell angle, will drop off the fastest as things switch around.

Windwise things look pretty good…mostly light/moderate N-NNE winds in the morning, which are a little side-offshore for some areas and really offshore for others. Looks like super chilly am air temps and the water itself isn’t going to be feeling all that great thanks to the brutal winds that pushed through on Tuesday. I would definitely plan on the winter suit for the dawn patrol tomorrow…maybe booties and a squid-lid if you live in a spot that lets the morning winds blow through with some extra pep. Afternoon winds look remarkably light…so there might be a chance for some afternoon surf, particularly at spots that already have some wind protection (kelp, high cliffs, some sort of structure).

So like I said it looks like a surf day tomorrow…still plenty of swell, and it looks like shape should be pretty clean in the morning since the winds shift offshore a couple of hours before sunup. Expect that stacked up windswell shape and slight gutlessness that you get with shorter-period swells but there will plenty of waves and it should still be crossed up enough that most spots will have some decent corners. You might want to wait for things to warm up a little (air temps are supposed to creep up tomorrow)…I think that the winds and the swell will stick around long enough to keep fun waves through midday…but watch for a bit more onshore bump and dropping swell the later in the day you hit it.

Here are the tides…

12/23/2009 Wednesday
02:06AM LST 3.9 H
07:55AM LST 2.6 L
12:38PM LST 3.4 H
07:41PM LST 1.2 L

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Screw my front teeth, gimme some of that S swell Christmas day *fingers crossed*

Anonymous said...

not cleaning up... n - nw wind on it by 8:30 tottaly blown out!:(

Surfsister said...

Nope. It didn't clean up here either. And there's very little swell in the water. Oh well.

(Word Verification: shall)

laduke13 said...

sorry guys i just took possesion of a new board. my fault

Anonymous said...

was offshore in sd.

Anonymous said...

showed up for dawn patrol in l.a. and it was a mess. adam, love your forecasts (though last 2-3 wks. have been hit and miss! you're still batting .990). i tell everyone about your page. thanks for your work.

Unknown said...

Yeah the wind didn't do LA or OC any favors this morning...the trailing portions of the front didn't move out as fast as the weather models perdicted.

It was a bit funky though...I live about a mile back from the beach and the wind was offshore/calm at my house and then side-onshore right along the water. The land-breeze and the sea-breeze were fighting a tug of war and we lost.

Anonymous said...

where do you usually surf adam?

Unknown said...

Usually all over HB or Newport...depends on the swell, wind, tides, and crowd...the usual.

However I do get out an roam around Socal when there are waves (and the schedule permits).

seth said...

yeah offshore down in SD...swell was funky though...shifty peak...and then would stand up and get steep. Had a couple of really nice waves this morning...yes it was 37 degrees.

Anonymous said...

cool adam newps is my home break if i see you around il make sure to say hello