Waves for the Weekend – Fading swell with good beach weather

It will be a surfable weekend…both Saturday and Sunday will have good morning/lunchtime winds…but fading swell and fatter morning high tides are going to hamper shape a bit.

In the water we are going to have a mix of fading WNW-NW swell (280-300), backing off SW swell (195-215) and dropping local windswell. Saturday will be the biggest day with more of the WNW energy holding through the morning.



Sunday looks smaller across the board…the WNW’er will be mostly gone…but there is a very small reinforcement of SW swell that will keep the southern hemi from dropping completely out of the mix.



On Saturday most spots will be pretty slow in the morning thanks to the high tide…but once the tide evens out we can expect surf in the waist high range for the average spots…and some shoulder high+ sets at the standout NW facing breaks in Ventura, the South Bay, and San Diego.

Sunday will see smaller surf with the average spots holding around knee high…and the standouts seeing some waist-chest high sets. (South SD might be a little bigger on inconsistent sets). Again the tide will be an issue in the morning…so try and pick spots that can handle the higher tides.

Winds look good both days…light/variable to light-moderate offshore for the mornings and then just mild onshore sea-breezes around 10-12 knots for the afternoons…though it does look a little breezier on Sunday in the late afternoon.

Saturday Winds


Sunday Winds


The weekend’s surf isn’t all that exciting but it will be rideable and conditions will be clean which always helps. I think that most of you will have more fun on your small wave gear…but if you are down in SD you might get to keep the “all-around” board in the truck for Saturday….Sunday looks pretty small, probably a good day if you are just learning…or don’t mind riding the big boards. I will probably take a look at the surf on Saturday as the tide drops but I am not expecting a ton from it. Sunday I will probably be out building some sandcastles with the kids…

Make sure to check out the regional forecasts for the details for each county.

Regional/County Forecasts

Santa Barbara Surf Forecast
Ventura County Surf Forecast
Los Angeles County Surf Forecast
Orange County Surf Forecast
San Diego Surf Forecast

Here are the tides…have a good weekend!

03/27/2010 Saturday
01:47AM LDT 0.9 L
07:39AM LDT 5.3 H
02:19PM LDT -0.7 L
08:29PM LDT 5.0 H

03/28/2010 Sunday
02:34AM LDT 0.2 L
08:29AM LDT 5.3 H
02:54PM LDT -0.5 L
09:00PM LDT 5.4 H

Surf for Thursday – Morning offshores

Thursday is looking good condition-wise…but the surf is going to be a bit on the soft/small side, which may prevent from becoming a real surf day.

In the water we are going to see a mix of S-SW swells (190-210) and WNW windswell…neither of which are going to be very big. I was calling for a little more size in the long-range forecast that I posted on Monday…but the NW’er that was expected to show earlier this week was not able to wrap much energy into Socal, which means that I am cutting wave heights for tomorrow. Still with the mix that will show we should be able to find a few rideable ones.



So for Thursday look for the average spots to pull in fairly consistent knee-waist high waves. The standout S-SW facing breaks, particularly those that like to combo in the windswell, will be a more consistent waist-chest high on the sets, with a few bigger shoulder high sets mixing in on the lower tides. Look for the biggest waves showing through San Diego, a few select areas in Orange County, and Southern Ventura.

Winds for Thursday look good…this funk that has been bothering us the last couple of days is expected to move on out tonight and in the process it will pull winds around to the NE. So for tomorrow morning we can expect E-NE winds around 10 knots at most spots but with some 10-15+ knot gusts coming through the passes and canyons near the beach. Overall it will be sort of a mild Santa Ana (Santana) wind in the morning…but it won’t really be able to establish itself along the coast so we will have a definite onshore switch that will arrive around midday. Expect the afternoon winds to blow out of the NW around 10-15+ knots.



I think that we will be able to have some fun tomorrow, particularly since the morning offshore flow will make our small surf seem a bit more playful. I think that the combo beach breaks will be the best call tomorrow…mostly because the windswell will help to fill in the inconsistency of the S-SW swell. I would plan on bringing your fishy shapes or small-wave gear so that you can squeeze a little more fun out of the swell mix. While the tides aren’t ideal for the morning you will want to surf early rather than wait…if you stall out too long the winds will shift onshore and you will have missed the window.

Here are the tides

02:15AM LDT 0.5 L
08:22AM LDT 4.8 H
02:24PM LDT 1.2 L
08:14PM LDT 5.0 H