Windy Mess for Tuesday – peaking WNW energy and onshore winds

Tuesday is not looking like much of a surf day.

We will have a mix of building WNW-NW wind/stormswell and some medium period WNW energy (275-300 all mixed together) along with a touch of SSW swell from the Southern Hemi.



Surfwise the average spots are going to see some sloppy waist-shoulder sets, while the average WNW facing spots see more consistent chest-head high surf. The standout NW breaks, the spots will excellent exposure to the swell mix, will be consistently shoulder-overhead on sets with some bigger waves sneaking through at times. Unfortunately the most exposed spots will also be the most exposed to the onshore wind so shape looks pretty ugly for most of the area.

Winds will be out of the WNW-NW around 10-15 knots for the morning with gusts hitting around 15-20 at the average spots. The really windy areas will have 15-20 knots winds in the morning with gusts topping out around 25-knot+ at times. Winds will stay around the same speed most of the day.



Personally I think Tuesday is going to be a good day to stay in bed…onshore winds, cold air temps, and sloppy surf just doesn’t motivate me very well. I do however think that we might want to give the cams and wind stations a quick check in the morning, sometimes these fronts don’t push through the way the models expect and there is a small window of surf time early in the day. Also the NW wind direction doesn’t blow everything completely out…there are a few small pockets in Santa Barbara and North LA that don’t get super junky…the only drawback with those spots is they also don’t pull in much NW swell, particularly when the periods are short, so you might see cleaner shape but much smaller surf. I always think it is prudent to give the surf a check anytime there is swell in the water, despite what the winds say they are going to do.

Here are the tides…lets cross our fingers that the winds come through lighter and cleaner than the forecast says.

12/22/2009 Tuesday
01:22AM LST 3.7 H
06:23AM LST 2.7 L
11:38AM LST 3.9 H
07:03PM LST 0.8 L

Waves for Wednesday – Looks a lot like poop

Wednesday is not going to be much of a surf day.

We have a new little storm forecast to move through the area on Wednesday...nothing super strong but enough to drive up W winds in our local waters. Unfortunately that means we will have moderate 10-12 knot W winds through the morning and W winds 10-15+ knots (wind gusts near 20 knots) on tap for the most exposed beaches by the afternoon.

If it had been cleaner we probably would have had some fun...there is a mix of S-SW and WNW swell in the water as well as some local windswell. Most breaks will continue to be in the chest high+ range while the better combo spots see some shoulder high+ sets at times.

The winds are just a bad angle for SoCal...we can kind of deal with WNW, N, and even S winds...but the W-SW directions are pretty bad. If you have some weird sheltered spot, and you live across the street from it, it might be worth a check...other than that I would wait for some light...check the cams...see the wind...and then do something else.


sucktacular!

Wind for Monday – Looks a lot like poo

Monday is not looking like a surf day.

We have this lovely cold front that has been blasting onshore wind pretty steady since about 9am this morning (earlier in some areas).



Anyway this wind is forecast to continue through evening…hold pretty steady to about midnight and then back down slightly as we head toward Monday morning. Unfortunately it is never supposed to stop blowing, just slow down, so it looks like Monday is going to be pretty hacked up even through the dawn patrol. Here is the COAMPS shot for tomorrow morning.



Looks good doesn’t it? With the wind not really backing down I am not expecting a very pretty picture condition/shapewise tomorrow. There may be a couple of exceptions if you can find a spot completely protected from the W winds…but then you wouldn’t have much swell since the majority of the energy in the water will be local windswell. Yeah basically it is going to suck.

You might try a cam check in the morning but I wouldn’t waste a lot of time looking for clean surf…it is most likely going to be a hacky, poopy mess. Oh and the upwelling probably dropped the water temps like 10-degrees too (just great).