Waves for the Weekend – Semi-sloppy Saturday…cleaner and bigger on Sunday

Sunday looks like a surf day this weekend…Saturday on the other hand will be rideable, maybe even semi-clean in the morning but building onshore winds are going to junk it up pretty fast.

Over the weekend we can expect a mix of slowly building NW windswell (290-300) that starts pushing up late Friday night and will continue to fill in through Saturday eventually peaking on Sunday. There will also be some weak overlapping shots of S-SW swell that will push small surf into the well exposed breaks. On Sunday a new, bigger WNW-NW swell (285-300 but with most of the energy around 290-300), will arrive adding size to most of the exposed spots throughout Socal but hitting Southern SD a bit better than others.



Expect a slow start on Saturday…the windswell won’t have filled in much and we will be working off mostly WNW-NW leftovers and small S-SW energy…to top it off the high tide will still be squatting right in the middle of the dawn patrol. Look for the average WNW-NW facing breaks and the better combo breaks to hold right around knee to occasionally waist high. The better NW breaks in Ventura and the South Bay will be more in the waist-chest high range while the top NW spots and best combo breaks in Southern SD will have some chest-shoulder high sets. Shape won’t hold together long…10-20 knot W-WNW winds are forecast to develop around midday and hold through the afternoon.



Sunday will be much cleaner….and really, if the AM tide was a little less lame, it would probably end up being a fun playful surf day. Since we do have about a 5’ high tide that peaks right around 9am we can expect the morning surf to be on the slow side. There will still be some waves but the hightide swampthing is going to keep most areas from being very fun.



Sizewise we can expect the surf to come up a notch on Sunday. Look for the average WNW-NW facing spots to build into the waist-shoulder high range. Standout NW facing breaks and the excellent combo spots will be in the chest-head high range and it looks like a few of the best San Diego NW breaks will see some overhead sets.

We should have some N-NE winds setting up for Sunday morning…mostly below 10-knots and semi-variable in a few areas. So basically we can expect clean conditions, even slightly offshore flow for the morning and then moderate N-NW winds around 10-15+ knots for the afternoon.



Sort of a split decision this weekend…smaller and windy on Saturday (with a short surf window in the morning before the winds get too strong) and then cleaner conditions and building swell on Sunday. I don’t think that the Sunday swell will be worth driving all that far for…but if you are just a little ways from a better NW facing spot then I would take the extra time to check those areas. I am not super excited about the surf this weekend but I will be out seeing if I can find a playful nugget or two. Fortunately it looks like more clean conditions and a better combo swell will be heading our way next week…I can’t wait.

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…

03/13/2010 Saturday
01:40AM LST 1.2 L
07:32AM LST 4.9 H
02:12PM LST -0.1 L
08:16PM LST 4.3 H

03/14/2010 Sunday
03:10AM LDT 0.9 L
09:03AM LDT 4.8 H
03:33PM LDT 0.0 L
09:35PM LDT 4.5 H