Thursday’s Surf – WNW Leftovers with a side of weak SW swell

Thursday will be surfable…but the swell mix will be a shadow of what we saw earlier this week.

The last of our WNW-NW swell (280-300) will be fading out on Thursday while a new small SW swell (200-220) moves in and replaces the SW’er that has been sort-of showing the last few days.



Average WNW-NW facing breaks and the good combo spots can expect surf in the waist-chest high range on Thursday…maybe even a few rare bigger sets through the morning tide push. Standout NW facing breaks and the excellent combo spots, mostly in San Diego, will be more in the waist-shoulder high range with some rare shoulder-head high faces sneaking through early in the morning. Overall shape will be ok…nothing great…and it will be pretty tide sensitive so try and hit your spot when the tides will be the best.

The weather won’t be quite as warm as Wednesday but we will still see some decent conditions on Thursday. Look for light and variable to light-offshore winds for the morning and mostly clean conditions throughout Socal. WNW-NW winds around 10-13 knots build in through the afternoon.



With the swell dropping and the midmorning tide still being a little funky I don’t think that it is going to be a “great” surf day…just sort of playful/rideable…a workhorse sort of day I guess you could call it. Like I said a couple of times the tides are going to play a pretty big role in surf shape throughout the day…even though the high isn’t that “high”…I think that a morning session, before the high tide rolls in, will be your best bet.

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…

02/18/2010 Thursday
05:22AM LST 1.1 L
11:00AM LST 3.5 H
04:58PM LST 1.2 L
11:24PM LST 4.5 H

Tuesday’s Surf – Slow fade on the W-NW swell mix

Tuesday will be a surf day.

In the water we will have a slowly fading, but still healthy W-NW swell (275-300 but mostly 285-300 now) and some much smaller background SW swell (200-220). Look for decent sized surf to continue at the exposed W-NW breaks but expect the bigger sets to be less and less frequent as the swells fade.



Look for the average W-NW spots and the ok combo breaks to see surf in the chest-head high range with some inconsistent overhead sets still pushing through on the lower tides. Standout NW facing breaks and the excellent combo spots, mostly in Ventura, the South Bay, and Southern San Diego, will have surf more in the shoulder-overhead range with sets still going a couple of feet+ overhead at times during the lower tides.

Winds and weather look good too…very similar to Monday. So expect cool light offshore winds to set up through the dawn patrol and then just moderate WNW-NW flow around 10-13 knots for the afternoon. Skies will be mostly clear and we can expect another day of nice beach temps once things warm up.



Fun-sized swell mix, warm beach temps and clean conditions…you can’t really ask for more. The points and reefs will continue to have the best shape but now that the W-NW’er is backing off it looks like the SW swell is showing a touch more so the beach breaks should be pretty fun as well (and a lot less crowded).

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…

02/16/2010 Tuesday
04:00AM LST 1.1 L
09:48AM LST 4.5 H
04:18PM LST 0.3 L
10:29PM LST 4.4 H