Waves for Wednesday – Clean conditions (and NW swell) continue

Wednesday will be a surf day.

The NW swell (290-300) will hold on Wednesday and mix with a slight bump in SW energy (200-220). Look for the NW’er to loose a little steam as we head into the afternoon.



Since the swell angle is starting to get pretty steep on the NW energy it won’t be showing at a ton of spots…the lesser exposed areas will be working off a mix of leftover WNW-NW energy and if they are lucky some of the inconsistent SW swell. Look for the average breaks to hold in the knee-waist high range…with some rare waist-chest high sets sneaking through at times. The standout NW facing breaks, particularly spots that like longer-period (15-16 second) energy in the Ventura, South Bay, and San Diego areas, will have more consistent waist-chest high surf with some occasional chest-shoulder high sets sneaking in…a few of the better San Diego spots will be around head high on the bigger sets.

We will have offshore winds for the morning. SB and Ventura areas will see NE winds 10-15+ knots (with gusts nearing 20-25 knots at times). LA down through San Diego will be more NE around 5-10 knots but still nice and clean. Looks like winds will stay light through midday and then turn variable onshore by mid-afternoon. With these sort of conditions I would keep an eye on things around the end of the day…good chance that winds will lay down or even turn offshore again…so there may be a chance for an evening cleanup.



More clean, rideable (if not playful) surf on tap for Wednesday...unfortunately it will be a bit slow and small if you aren’t at a break with great NW exposure…so if you are stuck surfing leftovers you will want to bring a longboard or something with a lot of foam in it. The standout spots will have some racier sections…particularly if the break is on the shallow side…I would still probably stick to something fishy but you might be able to get away with a faster board. With a lot of people already on vacation expect the crowd to get a bit heavy tomorrow...between the crowd factor, and the steeper less consistent swell in the water I don’t think it will be worth driving too far for waves…hopefully you will be able to find a fun peak close to home.

Here are the tides…

11/25/2009 Wed
04:23AM LST 4.2 H
10:40AM LST 2.4 L
03:31PM LST 3.4 H
10:02PM LST 1.2 L

Links for the regional forecasts…

Santa Barbara Surf Forecast - http://socalforecastsb.blogspot.com/
Ventura Surf Forecast - http://socalforecastven.blogspot.com/
Los Angeles Surf Forecast - http://socalforecastla.blogspot.com/
Orange County Surf Forecast - http://socalforecastoc.blogspot.com/
San Diego Surf Forecast - http://socalforecastsd.blogspot.com/

Surf for Tuesday – A few nuggets

Tuesday is looking like a surf day…as long as you avoid the 6’ high tide…stupid tide.

We will have a mix of peaking SW swell (200-220) and some holding WNW-NW energy (280-300 and sort of mix of short/medium period swell).



Wave heights are going to hold in the waist-chest high range for the average exposed spots. Standout breaks, mostly those good SW facing spots and the better WNW/SW combo breaks, will be in the waist-shoulder high range on the sets…possibly a little bigger on the lower tides. Expect some waits between the bigger SW sets even at the top spots.

Winds look good…sort of light and variable to light SE-offshore for the morning…mostly it will be clean, with a couple of pockets of light texture. NW winds 10-12 knots will build in through the afternoon.



I still think that the early morning dawn patrol will be the best call…the winds will be light…and the tides won’t be too high yet. You might want to think about downgrading your board to something a little fishy-er just so you can stretch the surfablility during the morning session (ride more in-between sets…and stay out a little longer as the tide comes up.)

Here are the tides

04:09AM LDT 2.0 L
10:17AM LDT 6.0 H
05:40PM LDT -0.2 L
11:59PM LDT 3.6 H

Surf for Friday – let me check…yep it’s still freaking hot

Friday will be a surf day.

On Friday we are going to continue to see a mix of S-SW swell (180-220), NW swell (290-300), and some background S energy from TS Nora. The Southern Hemi energy looks like it will pulse up a touch as new swells move in and overlap the existing energy throughout the day.



Wave heights for tomorrow will continue to be in the waist-chest high range for most of the average S-SW breaks and the ok combo spots. Top S-SW facing breaks, and the good combo breaks, will be in the waist-shoulder high range with a few head high sets mixing in at times.

Winds will be good again tomorrow…light offshore for most areas and a few spots with moderate offshore conditions. Again it won’t be a full blown Santana but it will have enough oomph to cancel out the onshore bump that usually starts up midmorning…so we can expect cleaner conditions to hold on longer than normal. It will be stupid hot inland again…beach temps will be around the low 80’s.



Overall Friday looks pretty fun...winds will be good, there will be enough swell to ride most places, and if you stay on land you will likely melt. I think that the S-SW facing points and reefs will be the best call shapewise tomorrow…beach breaks are going to be a bit walled, particularly on the bigger sets but they should be an ok fallback if you don’t feel like surfing with tons of people. I think you should be able to ride most of your small-medium wave gear at the average spots…maybe a faster board at the top breaks. The tides are still a little funky, but I have noticed that they haven’t been a total surf-killer like they could be…hopefully you have dialed in your favorite spots over the last couple of days and can plan accordingly. (Mine have actually be working a bit better as the tide has been topping out…)

Anyways…here are the tides…hope you guys get a few pre-weekend ones tomorrow. (only 2 tide changes on Friday)

02:14PM LDT 4.4 H
11:01PM LDT 1.0 L