Surf For Friday – Much Cleaner

Friday is looking like more of a surf day.

Thursday had a few decent ones in the morning thanks to the cooler temps turning the wind more northerly, which was nice, but the conditions didn’t hold up that long and after a couple of ‘nad numbing chilly hours the winds shifted onshore and tore up most areas.

On Friday the winds are going to be a bit better, high pressure is stabilizing over us and most of the forecast models agree that winds will be light and the air temps are going to be going up (eventually topping out in the upper 70’s to low 80’s at the beach over the weekend.

Swellwise we are going to see a mix of dropping WNW windswell and small pulses from the SW and the WNW-NW. The windswell isn’t going to drop off completely but it will be backing down as the winds in the outer waters subside.

Look for the average spots to see surf in the waist-chest high range on Friday. The W-NW facing standout breaks will have surf in the shoulder high range on the sets. Expect the biggest surf in the San Diego area but with a couple of bigger pockets showing through Ventura and the South Bay as well.

Winds will be much better...mostly light and variable to light offshore for the morning. Those winds shift onshore around 10-12 knots for the afternoon and may have a slight chance of laying down late in the evening around sundown, particularly at spots that have a little protection from the W-NW flow.

Friday morning COAMPS wind forecast


While conditions will be much better the overall surf on Friday won’t be great...we will still have a lot of windswell lump in the surf shape, the other swells are smaller and less consistent, and the mix of energy is a bit sensitive to the tide swing...all of which just sort of blah’s the surf. I think you will be able to find a couple of nuggets but don’t expect a ton of good waves. I would probably stick to boards that have a little drive to them in windswell waves...something that makes up for the lack of push that the shorter period swells sometimes have.

Also I was looking at the long-range forecast and it looks like another good S-SSW swell (180-210) will be moving later next week...it should show some long-period energy around the 22nd...but the peak of the swell will be on the 23-24th (with plenty of energy holding for a couple of days after the peak). At this point it looks like consistent shoulder-head high surf for S facing spots...with sets going overhead to maybe a couple of feet overhead at the top S-SW standouts. This swell hits Baja and Mainland Mex/Central America pretty good too. I will post a more detailed forecast in a little bit...