Thursday’s Surf – Much cleaner…but not a lot to work with

Thursday’s looks surfable…conditions will be a LOT cleaner, but don’t expect a ton of size showing at most spots.

We are going to have a mix of quickly fading NW windswell (290-300), some backing off medium-period WNW-NW swell (285-300), and some inconsistent background S-SW swell (190-210). That windswell has a pretty steep NW angle so only a few areas, like Southern San Diego, will be able to pull much out of it…everywhere else is going to working off mostly leftovers and background energy. Check out the CDIP chart…you can see the areas where the NW’er is sneaking through the gaps.



Average spots…mostly the NW facing ones and the really good combo breaks…will be in the knee-waist high range with some inconsistent chest high sets. The standout NW facing spots in Ventura and the South Bay will have some chest-shoulder high sets. The best breaks down in Southern SD will be more in the chest-head high range…and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a bigger set now and then as the S-SW swell combos it up in a few places.

We finally get a break in the winds…look for light/moderate NE winds setting up for Santa Barbara down through North OC…and then more of a variable offshore/SE flow as you move down toward San Diego County. NW winds around 10-15 knots will push in through the afternoon. Beach temps should warm up about 10-12 degrees compared to Wednesday…so possibly hitting the low-70’s.



I am not expecting a ton out of the surf tomorrow…but I am planning on getting a few waves…for some reason the mostly leftover mushy windswell isn’t really pushing my buttons, but hey that is just me. I would plan on brining your smaller wave gear just so you can get a few more as the tide and dropping swell take turns hampering shape. Oh and you might want to bring your booties too…all that wind did not do water temps any favors.

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…

03/11/2010 Thursday
12:36AM LST 1.9 L
06:23AM LST 4.7 H
01:25PM LST -0.2 L
07:41PM LST 3.8 H