Thursday’s Surf – New WNW swell

Thursday looks plenty surfable. We will have a decent combo of fading WNW energy and a new WNW swell (290-300) in the water. Winds are expected to be light and variable through the morning and then stay on the light side in the afternoon.

I am expecting most W facing beaches to see surf in the chest-shoulder high+ range while the best exposed breaks of San Diego, Ventura, and the LA South Bay, see consistent head high surf and some overhead sets mixing in at times. This swell will be showing fairly strong for the Ventura and LA areas through the morning, (Santa Barbara sees some of it but stays a bit shadowed due to the swell angle). OC and San Diego will pick up more in the afternoon. All areas will see this swell hold waves into Friday.

I would definitely take a look at the cams in the morning…or if you are close enough drive down to the beach and look at it in person. The swell period is pretty long as the swell starts so expect to wait around between the bigger sets…also expect to see quite a difference in size when you look at breaks that are not well exposed to the swell.

Don’t worry if you can’t surf on Thursday… there will be a bigger and better-aimed WNW swell (280-300) arriving over the weekend.

New WNW swells arrive later this week (decent conditions too!)

The North Pacific is at it again…except, compared to last week, it looks like we will get the surf without the bad weather.

The forecasts are showing a couple of decent back-to-back WNW swells that begin arriving later this week and hold into the weekend.



The first WNW’er (285-300) begins arriving on Thursday and peaks overnight into Friday (Jan 10-11th). A lot of the energy of this swell is coming in above the 290-degree mark which means that some areas will be shadowed, and quite a bit smaller, than the more exposed areas. On the average most “winter” spots will be around chest-shoulder high+. Standout NW breaks in San Diego, Ventura, and the South Bay will see overhead sets.

The second WNW swell (280-300) arrives on Saturday and will peak through into Sunday. This second round of swell will have a more open swell angle and should have a little more size and consistency for exposed breaks. Look for the average areas to see shoulder-head high sets while the standouts (again in SD, Ventura, and South LA) see sets going a couple of feet overhead.

Conditions are looking good for both swells…winds are expected to be variable through the mornings of the work week and then shift more Northerly (and stay around 10-knots) for the weekend.

It looks like these swells may be worth driving for...particularly if you are looking for bigger waves off the first swell. On swell #1 I would probably head to San Diego Friday morning. The swell will have filled in and most of the breaks from La Jolla southward should have some decent size.

A lot more spots will be open to swell #2...on that swell I don't think you are going to need to go very far to find waves...lots of winter spots will be working. SD, Ventura, and LA South Bay will be the biggest but you should be able to find decent head high+ surf at the top winter spots in the other areas as well.