Waves for the Weekend – Fading swell with good beach weather

It will be a surfable weekend…both Saturday and Sunday will have good morning/lunchtime winds…but fading swell and fatter morning high tides are going to hamper shape a bit.

In the water we are going to have a mix of fading WNW-NW swell (280-300), backing off SW swell (195-215) and dropping local windswell. Saturday will be the biggest day with more of the WNW energy holding through the morning.



Sunday looks smaller across the board…the WNW’er will be mostly gone…but there is a very small reinforcement of SW swell that will keep the southern hemi from dropping completely out of the mix.



On Saturday most spots will be pretty slow in the morning thanks to the high tide…but once the tide evens out we can expect surf in the waist high range for the average spots…and some shoulder high+ sets at the standout NW facing breaks in Ventura, the South Bay, and San Diego.

Sunday will see smaller surf with the average spots holding around knee high…and the standouts seeing some waist-chest high sets. (South SD might be a little bigger on inconsistent sets). Again the tide will be an issue in the morning…so try and pick spots that can handle the higher tides.

Winds look good both days…light/variable to light-moderate offshore for the mornings and then just mild onshore sea-breezes around 10-12 knots for the afternoons…though it does look a little breezier on Sunday in the late afternoon.

Saturday Winds


Sunday Winds


The weekend’s surf isn’t all that exciting but it will be rideable and conditions will be clean which always helps. I think that most of you will have more fun on your small wave gear…but if you are down in SD you might get to keep the “all-around” board in the truck for Saturday….Sunday looks pretty small, probably a good day if you are just learning…or don’t mind riding the big boards. I will probably take a look at the surf on Saturday as the tide drops but I am not expecting a ton from it. Sunday I will probably be out building some sandcastles with the kids…

Make sure to check out the regional forecasts for the details for 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…have a good weekend!

03/27/2010 Saturday
01:47AM LDT 0.9 L
07:39AM LDT 5.3 H
02:19PM LDT -0.7 L
08:29PM LDT 5.0 H

03/28/2010 Sunday
02:34AM LDT 0.2 L
08:29AM LDT 5.3 H
02:54PM LDT -0.5 L
09:00PM LDT 5.4 H

Surf for Friday – Nice beach weather

Friday won’t be a great surf day...but we will have some rideable waves and the weather is supposed to be pretty nice. A few small waves and some sunny skies...sounds a lot better than working.

We are going to continue to see the mix of local WNW-NW windswell, some SW swell (190-210), and some background WNW energy. Check out the local CDIP models...still a few waves sneaking through in the better exposed areas.









The average spots see some knee-waist high waves with some waist-high+ sets. The standout breaks...the better combo spots and good NW facing breaks (that like windswell) will have some chest-chest high+ sets. Looks like the biggest sizes will continue to show in San Diego, parts of Southern Ventura, and a few of the top combo spots in the other regions. Santa Barbara and the Malibu areas look like they will have the weakest surf.

Winds look good tomorrow...mostly light and variable to light offshore for the morning. Then only weak onshore flow in the afternoon...probably W around 10 knots or so. It is supposed to be about 70 at the beach by the afternoon. I am going to start downloading viruses on my computer now so that it will break about 11am tomorrow.

Your best bet is going to be the top exposed combo spots...I would stick to the ones close to home since there really isn’t enough size to make it worth driving anywhere. The tide will still be a bit of a problem midmorning but there may be a little more of a surfable gap right at dawn. Again I would plan on using your smaller wave gear just so you can maximize the fun of the boggier/smaller surf.

Here are the tides

04:23AM LDT -0.2 L
10:21AM LDT 4.3 H
04:11PM LDT 0.7 L
10:15PM LDT 5.5 H

Waves for the weekend – New WNW swell lining up for Sunday/Monday

We are going to have a surf weekend. New WNW-NW swell will be arriving over the next couple of days and winds and weather are expected to really clean up as well. About the only issue will be water-quality…thanks to the rain that pushed through earlier in the week…but by the time the swell starts to hit we will be a couple of days past the heaviest rains so hopefully there won’t be that much poo.

Swellwise we are going to see a couple of new swells from the North Pacific and a little bit of background SSW energy (so little that it will mostly get lost in the bigger NPAC swells). The first swell won’t really be that big…and it is coming in from a steeper angle which limits what areas can pick it up.

The first NW’er (290-300+) arrives late Friday night and peaks through the day on Saturday. On Saturday most spots will be in the waist high+ range. Standout NW facing spots in San Diego and Ventura will pick up more energy and will be in the chest-shoulder high range with a couple of shoulder high+ sets on the lower tides.

Sunday we will get a much stronger and slightly more westerly WNW swell (285-300+). This one will arrive with longer swell periods (it will start filling in with 20+ second periods but the peak of the swell will still be around 16-17 seconds and will arrive later Sunday afternoon and into Monday). Since this swell is bigger and coming in from a better angle most exposed spots will see more size. Look for average W facing breaks to build into the chest-shoulder high+ range by Sunday afternoon. Standout NW facing spots, particularly in San Diego (as well as Ventura and the South Bay), will have surf in the shoulder-overhead range with some sets going a couple of feet overhead on the lower tides.

Check out the CDIP forecast model (this is the weird sideways one).



If you look a little closer at the Dec 1st section of the model…you can see how that new WNW’er will wrap into each area. (Since the map is set for Dec 1st at 1am it actually means Sunday night…not Monday night).



Even with the new energy and the longer periods the larger surf from this swell is still going to really be focused in select areas. There will be waves at most exposed spots but if you are looking for larger waves try and aim for spots in the circled areas.

Wind and weather are looking better for the weekend (and Monday) as well. Saturday may have some morning fog but this burns off and we see sunny skies and mild weather through the rest of the weekend. Winds will be light and variable to light offshore through the mornings and NW winds will hold around 10-knots for the afternoons.

It really looks like Sunday afternoon and Monday will be the peak of the new swell that hits over the weekend (too bad it couldn’t have hit more on our Vacation)…so if you are looking for larger surf you are going to want to try and surf during that time frame. There will be plenty of playful sized surf for the rest of the weekend…nothing spectacular but enough that we can have some fun, especially as the weather starts to improve. That new WNW’er that will hit on Sunday does look good enough to do some driving if you need overhead waves…I wouldn’t spend hours on the road or anything but it will be worth heading down the road a little further to find a spot with good NW exposure.

Here are the tides…have a great weekend! (hope you aren't forced into too much shopping)

Saturday
02:34AM LST 2.6 L
08:48AM LST 5.7 H
04:32PM LST -0.3 L
11:11PM LST 3.4 H

Sunday
03:05AM LST 2.7 L
09:20AM LST 5.5 H
05:11PM LST -0.1 L