S swells for the Weekend – quick update

It still looks like those overlapping S swells (180-200) will peak over this upcoming weekend.

Exposed spots...mostly in Orange County and San Diego...will have consistent surf in the chest-shoulder high range with some inconsistent head high sets. The standout S facing spots, mostly just in the OC, will have some inconsistent overhead sets.

This isn’t going to be a super huge swell...but considering the winter we just slogged through it is nice to get some new swell heading our direction. Check out the CDIP for the next couple of days (sideways forecasts!)



It isn’t super descriptive thanks to the CDIPer’s having the scale dialed out to 3’ wave ranges...but you get the general feel of how the swell is going to hit over the weekend.

It is important (and you can tell by my excellent madden-style photoshopping) to note that there is going to be some shadowing for LA county from Catalina and San Clemente islands (and the whole cortez banks area as well). It doesn’t mean that it is going to get totally shut out but it will be about 40-50% smaller than the other areas. Stupid islands.

The wind forecast right now isn’t looking great...but fortunately the wind models have been totally jacked up on certain levels...so I expect to see some of the harsher parts of the wind model mellow out over the next few forecast runs. Really we should be expecting some onshore texture for almost all areas...lightest through the mornings (and cleanest on Saturday)...afternoons are going to be pretty hacked up so try and surf early.

I will have another “waves for the weekend” update tomorrow but I thought I could help you plan a little by posting this one today.

Quick Heads Up - Some better waves coming

So I was looking at a few of the charts a little closer today and after getting some better data over the last couple of days I think that we could have a fun run of waves coming through in a few days.

It isn't really going to be big enough to get super fired up about but it will be better than the dribble that we have powered through over the last several days.

This is the storm that I was looking at in particular...it pushed through our swell window fairly fast so it didn't throw up any "hey look at this" sort of flags, but after seeing some altimeter and wave-model data it looks like it kicked out a playful size shoulder-head high swell for the standout spots in SoCal.

Check out these QUIKscat readings



Like I said nothing really that exciting but better than we currently have.

I am looking for some of the smaller lead elements of this S-SW swell (185-205) to start pushing in on the Friday (9/26) with the peak of the swell arriving on Saturday and Sunday (9/27-9/28).

Sizewise look for surf in the waist-shoulder high range at the average S facing breaks. Standout spots in Orange County and San Diego will be more in the chest-shoulder high+ range with some inconsistent head high sets as the swell peaks.

Winds and tides look decent for the weekend...and we may even see enough background WNW energy and local windswell to help break up the Southern Hemi at the more open combo breaks.

All-in-all we could have a few surfable mornings on tap as we head into the end of the week and the weekend. Make sure to check the blog for more details as we get closer to the end of the week.