We will also have a new WNW-NW swell (285-300) that will be filling in throughout the day. The new swell will be showing up in Santa Barbara and Ventura in the morning…with some new energy starting to show in the other counties further south as well, just not as big…but the peak of the swell looks like it will arrive around mid-afternoon.
Sizewise the average W-WNW facing breaks will be in the waist-chest high range with some shoulder high and shoulder high+ sets at times at the better WNW exposed spots. The standout NW breaks will be running in the chest-head high range pretty consistently but as the tide drops into the afternoon I think that the best spots, particularly the breaks that like the shorter-period (10-13 second energy), will have some sets going a couple of feet overhead.
Winds and weather look a lot better tomorrow…this front is supposed to move out tonight setting up clear or partly clear skies tomorrow and light/variable to light offshore winds in the morning. NW winds around 10-14 knots will push through in the afternoon.
Overall it looks like a big improvement in size and conditions over Wednesday…water quality will not be great, some areas are seeing some pretty significant rainfall today…but it isn’t the first rain of the season so it probably isn’t the total toilet flush that it could have been. There will still be some tide problems in the morning as we see another winter-morning high tide…so if you plan to surf early make sure to check spots that can handle some extra water.
Here are the tides…Happy New Year’s Eve
12/31/2009 Thursday
01:39AM LST 2.0 L
07:50AM LST 6.8 H (swampy)
03:21PM LST -1.6 L
09:45PM LST 3.8 H
