Overall the conditions will be a lot better than Thursday…and even though the W-WNW swell will be backing off, there will still be plenty of waves leftover.
Swellwise we are going to see a mix of slowly dropping W-WNW swell (275-300) and some virtually undetectable SW energy holding in the background. The W-WNW swell will be backing down in both overall size and swell period…with the main part of the energy shifting from the 14-16 second stuff we had on Thursday to more of a 12-13 second swell period (and some shorter stuff) on Friday. Normally this isn’t worth mentioning too much…but on this guy it means that spots that wrapped in swell at longer-periods won’t be as big as the last couple of days, and a few areas that like shorter-periods will pull in a little more size and consistency, which is a little funky.
Sizewise we can expect the average W facing breaks to see surf in the chest-head high range with some overhead sets still mixing in, particularly on the lower tides. The better WNW spots, usually in the “winter” areas, will have shoulder-overhead surf and inconsistent overhead+ sets.
Top WNW-NW facing spots in Ventura, the South Bay, and Southern San Diego, will have more consistent surf in the head high to a couple of feet overhead, with some bigger sets still sneaking through at times. Overall it will be a bit smaller, and the bigger sets less consistent, but there will still be plenty of waves.
Conditions look good for tomorrow…even great in a few areas. Look for E winds around 10-15 knots for the morning with some stronger gusts near the wind-prone passes and canyons. These winds will stick around most of the morning before going more light/variable for the afternoon. Also, with this sort of conditions, the chances of an evening glass-off are pretty high…so keep an eye on things if you are stuck at work, you might get a few before sunset.
I still think the points and reefs are going to have the best shape…there is still a bit too much energy for the average beach break to do much more than close out...but you might check the spots that have something to break up the swell if you are too far away from a point/reef. Keep in mind that the sand bars at the exposed beaches are going to be a mess, hopefully the rain next week will help form some new ones. I would stick to your high-performance boards for tomorrow…but you might be able to dial it back a little, going for a better all-round board vs your bigger wave gear.
Make sure to read the regional forecasts for more details on how the swell will affect each county.
Regional/County Forecasts
Santa Barbara Surf Forecast
Ventura County Surf Forecast
Los Angeles County Surf Forecast
Orange County Surf Forecast
San Diego Surf Forecast
Here are the tides…hope you guys have a good one.
01/15/2010 Friday
02:30AM LST 2.0 L
08:30AM LST 5.7 H
03:46PM LST -0.7 L
10:04PM LST 3.7 H
4 comments:
Wavewatch.com redirecting to Surfer Magazine? or was that always the case?
The same guys that own surfer also own wavewatch and they are finally combining the two websites. But there also was a press release a couple of weeks ago that made it sound like that is so they can partner up with surfline and start charging for their surf cameras too...f-ing lame.
totally freakin lame!
There was about 15 windless minutes of ecstasy today.
Post a Comment