Tuesday’s Surf – Fading but playful through the morning

Compared to the last several days Tuesday looks like a semi-surf day. (yes I know there have been a few clean spots if you knew where to look…but for most breaks it has been pretty sloppy).

Tuesday is looking pretty manageable through the morning…enough swell to still push in some solid surf and finally a bit of clean up with the early winds. Right now it looks best through early to mid-morning…then the W-NW winds return in the afternoon.

The S-SSW swell will be slowly fading on Tuesday but it should still have plenty of energy showing. NW windswell will hold in the background but may lose a little steam as the local winds back off a bit.



Average S facing spots and the good NW breaks will be in the chest-head high range with a few bigger waves mixing in during the lower tides. The standout S facing spots in Orange County, and the best NW combo spots (mostly in SD) will see some shoulder-head+ surf with sets still going a couple of feet overhead.

Winds will be mostly light and variable in the morning…with a touch of NNW flow for Santa Barbara and Ventura, along with a bit of southerly texture showing down in San Diego. It looks like winds are going to lay down late Monday night so there may be some leftover funky chicken on the ocean surface even with the light winds. Look for W-NW winds to return by the afternoon topping out around 10-18 knots by late in the day.







Overall Tuesday is looking like one of the best surf days this week…the onshore wind is likely to return on Wednesday, and then stay funky through the end of the work week (stupid wind). It looks like the dawn patrol through the first few hours of daylight will be the cleanest…then onshore winds pick up around lunchtime. S facing spots, like those in OC, will have the biggest size…but the other S spots throughout Socal should stay pretty playful as well.

Here are the tides… Happy Birthday Jack (my son is turning 5) and Scott (a good friend of mine who acts like he is 5)!

05/25/2010 Tuesday
02:29AM LDT -0.6 L
08:33AM LDT 3.6 H
01:41PM LDT 1.4 L
07:56PM LDT 6.1 H

Monday’s Surf – Short dawn patrol window

Overall Monday won’t be a surf day…but winds in the early morning may be manageable for a couple of hours after sunrise…the rest of the day looks pretty breezy.

Swellwise we are going to continue to see a pretty solid mix in the water. The S-SSW swell (180-210) will be slowly fading while the NW windswell holds steady.



Average S facing spots and the good NW breaks will be in the chest-head high range with a few bigger waves mixing in during the lower tides. The standout S facing spots in Orange County, and the best NW combo spots (mostly in SD) will see some shoulder-overhead surf with sets still going a couple of feet overhead.

Winds don’t look great on Monday but there will be a few hours of light winds through the morning in Los Angeles, Orange County, and San Diego. I am not sure how much the shape will clean up considering that the winds pretty much howled most of Sunday and will hold on through most of the night as well…still if you have a spot with a little protection, or something like a big patch of kelp that can knock down the bump, (and the winds lighten up like the models suggest), then I would at least give the cams/wind-obs a check in the morning. The winds, even in those areas, will turn around about 9-10am and we can expect W winds around 12-18+ knots by the afternoon.



I don’t think you should get your hopes up for tomorrow morning…there will be a few pockets at select breaks, but most breaks are going to have plenty of leftover slop/bump that a couple of hours of light winds aren’t going to be able to erase.

Here are the tides…

05/24/2010 Monday
01:41AM LDT 0.0 L
07:34AM LDT 3.6 H
12:59PM LDT 1.2 L
07:19PM LDT 5.9 H