Friday’s Surf – S-SW swell and a touch of eddy

Friday looks like a surf day…but it may be hiding in the morning fog in a few areas.

We are going to have a mix of S-SW swell (180-210) that will be starting to peak around midday and some NW energy (290-300) coming from a mix of local windswell and some various background NPAC storms.



Check it out…you can see the new S-SW swell showing on the buoys this evening…



Average breaks will be in the waist-chest high range. The standout S facing spots and the excellent NW/S combo breaks, mostly through Orange County and parts of San Diego, will see surf in the chest-shoulder high range with some inconsistent head+ sets mixing in on the lower tides. Since a lot of the energy will be from the Southern Hemi, expect some long waits between the bigger sets.

Winds and weather look ok for Friday…not great…just sort of ok. We have a coastal eddy forming tonight that is going to set up some light onshore flow for Santa Barbara down through Northern LA County. The eddy is forecast to center around San Clemente Island which would lighten up winds for the southern regions. So at this point it looks like light/variable winds for the South Bay and then staying light on down to San Diego. One bad thing about this eddy is that it is going to cool off the air pretty quick…and as it does there could be some heavy fog (patchy heavy fog) in a few areas. So if you are unlucky enough to get the fog there may be some funky winds around the edges. Look for WSW-W winds around 10-14 knots for the afternoon.



Overall Friday looks like a surf day…but there are a lot of little things that could trip it up. Funky winds, a fat morning tide, inconsistent swell, dolphins, (just to name a few)…if we get the wrong mix it might keep conditions/shape from being all that good. Personally I am going to give the winds/weather a computer check in the morning before hopping in the truck…I am crossing my fingers that the eddy isn’t too strong, and that the fog holds further off the coast.

Here are the tides…

04/09/2010 Friday
01:17AM LDT 1.7 L
06:53AM LDT 4.1 H
01:34PM LDT 0.4 L
07:50PM LDT 4.1 H

Waves for the Weekend - Tide Swamp, Fog, and Surf

Saturday and Sunday will have enough swell to be surf days...but the combo of tides, fog, and winds will work hard to hamper our enjoyment.

We will have a couple of SSW-SW swells overlapping this weekend that mix with a bit of background NW windswell and a touch of longer-period (10-12 second) NW swell.

Average S-facing spots, mostly through North LA and a few of the other spots that are sort of on the bubble, will be in the waist-chest high range with some inconsistent shoulder high sets.

Standout S-SW facing breaks through Orange County and San Diego will be in the chest-shoulder high range with some bigger head high sets at the top spots.

The lame fog will continue at least through Saturday morning (but probably early Sunday as well)...so look for hard to see and lightly textured conditions through the dawn patrols. The fog is forecast to burn off in the afternoons but onshore winds out of the NW at about 12-14 knots slip into its place and helps to slop things up.

Tides will continue to be an issue, particularly through the mornings...we see a 5'+ high tide peak both Saturday and Sunday around 8:45-9:00am both days. This higher tide is going to make the wave heights seem a lot smaller, and shape will suck for many spots, but the swell is out there so we just need to cross our fingers that the tide will drop, the fog lifts, and the winds stay down long enough for conditions to pull themselves together.

If you have to get out and surf early I would try and pick spots that have a little shelter from the foggy onshore texture (spots with high cliffs or a pier/jetty/kelp...something to knock down the light breeze)...you are also going to want to try and hit up a break that can handle the high tide.

Here are the tides

Saturday

02:35AM -0.1' Low
08:43AM 5.3' High
02:48PM 0.8' Low
08:40PM 5.5' High

Sunday

03:03AM 0.2' Low
09:08AM 5.5' High
03:26PM 0.5' Low
09:20PM 5.2' High


The Cosmic Creek contest is down at Salt Creek in Orange County this weekend...so if you weren't planning on watching a contest then you might want to avoid the spot. They are going to be surfing on both Saturday and Sunday so expect limited access to the surf there. If the fog burns off...the contest is sort of cool...you have to ride 70's shapes, which makes for some interesting heats. They always have some sort of other nonsense going on down at the beach so if you got time to kill it might be worth walking down and checking it out.




Have a great weekend...hope you guys can dial in a few waves between all the funk!