Thursday’s (blank) – The small spell continues

So Thursday isn’t looking like much of a surf day.

Seriously I am getting a little sick of writing that line…I am bored with the lack of waves and writing about the lack of waves…and I am sure that you all are bored reading about it. I know that a few of the windswell spots have been at least marginally rideable but the combo of funky weather and pootacular water quality haven’t made a paddle out very appealing.

Thursday the weather shifts around a bit, the rain moves out but W-NW winds are forecast to follow the front and should chop up conditions, and also come in from such a steep angle that we don’t get any more size out of the already small windswell.

So we can expect mostly weak windswell, some tiny SW background swell, and onshore winds. Where do I sign up!...Actually my friend keeps asking me if I want to head to the local mountains for a snowboard session which might be the best call any of us could make…anyway wave heights will be around knee-waist high for most of the exposed spots. A few of the standout breaks down in Southern San Diego (and probably through Southern Ventura as well) will have some chest high waves on inconsistent sets. Shape looks mostly poor but may have a bit more of a window in the morning.

This is the COAMPS forecast for Thursday morning’s dawn patrol…not very promising.



Here are the tides

02:15AM LST 4.3 H
08:02AM LST 2.2 L
01:20PM LST 4.0 H
08:15PM LST 0.6 L

Wednesday’s Surf – Mostly small with a few sneaky ones here and there

Socal Forecaster’s Blog (11/18/2008) - Wednesday is going to rideable…but sort of on the bubble if I would call it a surf day. Conditions will be nice, there will be a few waves now and then, but nothing to get excited about. I guess it could be a surf day if you don’t mind longer waits and smaller surf.

Wow that was an amazing waffle that I got going there in the first paragraph.


I prefer Belgium myself…

I guess where I was going with that is that there will be surf tomorrow but I am not very excited about it. I am sure what you know what I mean…sitting around waiting for a chest high set can get a bit grating when you have a hunk of work/chores/bong-hits piling up at home.

Anyway enough of my incoherent ramblings…lets get on to the coherent ones.

Surf tomorrow will be a mix of smaller overlapping SSW-SW swells and a touch of leftover WNW energy.

Most spots will be in the knee-waist high range…and inconsistent when the tide is swinging around.

Top combo spots, mostly through Orange County and San Diego will have some waist-chest high sets…with just a touch more consistency down in the SD area.

Winds look light and variable through the morning with some areas of light offshore flow. Look for light to moderate NW winds around 10-12 knots for the afternoon.

Like I said above, I am not very fired up to surf tomorrow…but that doesn’t mean that if you are more open minded than I am you won’t have a bit of fun. Bring your smaller wave gear, longboards or fishies will be the best. It should also be a good day for beginners…small surf, longer waits between sets, sort of gutless at most breaks. Look for the biggest waves at the combo spots…but don’t drive very far unless you have to.

Things look better later this week. When I get a couple of minutes and will put together a better look at the long-range forecast for you guys (Hmmm it might be nice to schedule Thanksgiving up around Santa Barbara this year…I am just saying you might want to think about it).

Here are the tides (for once we don’t have a negative tide)

03:22AM LST 4.1’ High
08:31AM LST 2.8’ Low
01:54PM LST 4.5’ High
09:17PM LST 0.2’ Low

Wednesday's Waves - Small and Clean

Wednesday is looking pretty weak...overall I don't think it is going to be much of a surf day.

Our SSW swell will have mostly faded out while WNW energy (mostly local windswell) will remain on the small side. Add in that we still have some pretty fat (no ph in this one) tides and I think that we have a recipe for small gutless surf.

Average spots will be in the knee high range with some rare waist high sets. Expect almost all of the surf to mush/shorebreak out as the tide fills in midmorning.

The top S-SW facing spots will see mostly knee-waist high waves on inconsistent sets through the morning. A few of the best breaks may have some chest high waves sneaking through at times. The building tide-swamp will kill off any sort of fun at these spots too.

Winds look good for the morning...mostly light and variable to light offshore. Winds pick up out of the W-NW around 10-15 knots (surprise!) by the afternoon.

Personally I am not going to spend a lot of time thinking about surfing on Wednesday...I may load up the longboard or my small wave fishy board and swing by the beach in the morning but I think it is going to be hard sell to get myself to paddle out. If you aren't close to the water I wouldn't spend any significant time/money/gas trying to check it...maybe just a camera check on the lower tides in the morning and then get back to surfing your pillow.

Tides for Wednesday

04:15AM 1.5' Low
10:20AM 5.7' High
05:20PM 0.3' Low
11:22PM 3.9' High

Friday’s Surf – On the small side

Friday isn’t going to be much of a surf day. It will be clean and small as we pick up a mostly leftover mix of swell.

In the water we are going to have combo of quickly fading NW windswell and some background longer-period WNW/SW swell.

Expect most breaks to be around knee high with some waist high sets. The best exposed areas in San Diego, parts of OC, and the LA South Bay will see some chest high sets.

Winds and weather look ok as well…mostly light and variable winds in the morning and light onshore out of the W around 10 knots for the afternoon.

There will be a draining tide in the morning, heading to a -.3 low around 9am, that may cause some issues with our surf shape. Look for a lot of small but dumpy and shallow windswell lines at exposed areas…with just a touch of cross-up from the SW.

I think your best bet for surf will actually be after the tide bottoms out. If you can hold off, try and head out around 9am…the tide push should add a bit of size and consistency to the surf.

Just a note on the weekend… there is not much going on out there right now so it looks like we will have a slow weekend…small but playful. Thought you might like to know that we are all going to need to dust off the longboards…or the sand castle making toys. Things will likely be picking up next week.