Waves for Wednesday – S-SW carnage continues

Wednesday will be another surf day.

The S swell (170-190) will be winding down slowly while the SW swell (200-220), while smaller, continues to peak. There is a touch of NW windswell out in the water but the bigger southern hemi swells continue to dominate the exposed spots.



Surf will continue to be on the healthy side tomorrow...most S facing spots will be in the chest-head high range tomorrow. The standout S facing breaks, mostly through Orange County, parts of San Diego, and some parts of LA, will be in the shoulder-overhead range with a few bigger sets still sneaking through at the top deepwater breaks.

Winds will continue to be on the light side through the morning. Mostly light and variable to start off but with a few pockets of variable/southerly flow at times. Overcast skies early will burn off to sunny skies by the afternoon.



Shapewise the points and reefs will continue to have the best shape...and the biggest crowds. The jetties/piers/rocks and stuff that break up the swell a touch will be decent fallbacks but in most cases won’t have the best shape. My local beach break did its great wall of china impression again today and, since I was pressed for time, I ended up bodysurfing some thumpers at a local shorebreak...which while fun isn’t as much fun as surfing (for me). Hopefully we will see this swell start to break up later this week and start to be a little more rideable at the beach breaks. In the meantime it looks like boards for meatier surf are the call...unless you are planning a spot a little further out of the line of fire.

Check out the screenshot I got off the wavewatch.com Malibu camera...this is in-between sets...but I think the secret is out.



Here are the tides...

12:03AM LDT 1.4 L
05:26AM LDT 2.9 H
10:43AM LDT 1.6 L
05:30PM LDT 5.0 H

Waves for the Weekend – A few shots at surf and good dose of poo water

I don’t think this is going to be a “surf” weekend but...and it is a big but...if you keep your eyes on the weather and wind, you might get a few rideable waves sneaking through at the more wind-protected spots.

Overall I think it is going to be pretty junky with on and off S winds, rain, and some nasty leftover chop. Add in that the water quality is going to be totally shot to hell...and it doesn’t make for great sessions. (I usually mention this...but most Health Officials recommend avoiding ocean water contact for a period of at least 72 hours after a heavy rain has stopped). There will be enough instability in the local weather that there may be periods where winds lay down or even shift more E-ESE as portions of the storm pass...not anything we can count on...but worth watching if you don’t mind the water quality.

Swellwise we will have a mix of W energy (260-300) and SW windswell from the storm and a couple of other longer-range storms. Wave heights will stay consistently around chest-shoulder high for most W facing breaks. Standout W-NW facing spots will be in the shoulder-overhead range.

Winds and weather will be pretty shot for most of the really exposed beaches...particularly the open beach breaks...and it will be on and off clouds, periods of rain, and a couple of pockets of broken up sunshine throughout the weekend.

Check out the latest COAMPS for Saturday and Sunday morning. As you can see the winds are sort of all over the place...and while these look OK right now I expect the model to completely change as the next run is computed (that almost sounds dirty...I just computed in that port-o-potty...anyway I obviously need an alcoholic beverage at this point in the afternoon ).

Saturday morning



Sunday morning



I wish I had some better advice than “keep an eye on it” but really with these types of swells/storms that is sort of what you have to do to get good waves. I think you can maximize your chances by sticking with spots that are both exposed to the WNW and protected from the S winds (which will be the more dominant direction throughout the day). If you can’t pony up the white-blood cells to wade through all of the extra poo...well there is always snowboarding (plenty of new snow on the mountain).

Here are the tides...have a good one and stay safe, especially when driving around this weekend.

Saturday
12:41AM LST 1.8 L
06:46AM LST 6.3 H
02:08PM LST -1.5 L
08:28PM LST 4.0 H

Sunday
01:33AM LST 1.4 L
07:35AM LST 6.5 H
02:46PM LST -1.6 L
09:00PM LST 4.3 H

Tuesday’s Surf – Turning up the volume a notch

Tuesday will be a surf day.

There will be more SSW swell (190-205) mixing in with our slowly fading SW swell (210-220) and a touch of the nearly ever-present but not particularly good for much local windswell. (well I take it back…right now there is just enough windswell to help peak up the SW’ers which doesn’t make it totally useless). Check out the latest CDIP model…



Average exposed spots that can pick up some of the S-SW swell mix will be holding around chest-shoulder high. Standout S facing surf breaks, mostly through South Orange and North San Diego, will have surf in the shoulder-head high range with inconsistent overhead sets.

Winds will be fairly similar to the last couple of days. Mostly light and variable with some slight onshore texture showing at the more exposed breaks through the early morning. Onshore texture will pick up by mid-morning and we can expect onshore W winds around 10-15 knots by the afternoon.

Size- and Shape-wise those South OC and North SD points and reefs are going to be the best call. They are more exposed to the swell mix, they have the sea-floor set up to hold together a longer wave (with less closeouts), and they will actually start getting a bit more consistent as the new SSW swell fills in. Too bad the contest is shutting down access to Lowers but the other breaks around the region should be fun as well. I think this swell mix will be worth driving around a bit…not a ton…but enough to find a something a little more fun.

Thursday's Surf - I like waves

Thursday will be a surf day.

I actually got a few waves during lunch on Wednesday...surfed Northside HB around the Taco Bell reef...and there was some legit size coming in from the mix of SE Fausto swell and the new SSW'er coming in from the SPAC. It was still pretty walled and yet sort of soft at the same time, even the bigger overhead+ sets were on the gutless side (it was high tide)...and the current really blew but it wasn't any worse that I was expecting. The water was super warm too...and me being the genius that I am I left my trunks at home and brought my fullsuit. Yes this is the same suit that I surf in all winter. I basically got to be big-sweaty-gringo and tried to give myself heatstroke in near 68-70 degree water while floating down the beach pulling into close-out left after close-out left. Not the most fun...but it beats sitting at a desk. Next time I will just wear this it should be cooler.



Anyway...enough about my brilliance back to the forecast...Thursday will be plenty surfable with a lot of waves still coming through. We will have a mix of fading Fausto swell, SSW energy from the Southern Hemi, and some slowly increasing local windswell. At this point it looks like the Fausto swell will hang on...it will be past its peak but there should still be some size in the morning on the tide push. Expect it to bleed out as we head through the afternoon.

Most S exposed breaks will continue to see chest-shoulder high surf...a few of the better SW facing standouts (not exposed to the SE swell) will have some head high sets mixing in on the lower tides.

Top S facing spots, again mostly in North Orange County, will have more consistent shoulder-head high sets...and even a few overhead waves in the morning.

Winds look ok...mostly light and variable through the morning and then moderate W around 10-12+15 knots by the afternoon.

The best bets are pretty similar to Wednesday's spots...if you found fun surf on Wednesday you should go back on Thursday. Stick with the better exposed S facing breaks...particularly ones that like to focus the shorter-period tropical swell. Points and reefs will have the best shape (and the most crowds)...but you can still have some fun at the beach breaks if they a good solid sandbar...or some jetties, or a pier, or some sort of random shipwreck or something.