Waves for the Weekend – Fun WNW energy continues…so do the good morning winds

Both Saturday and Sunday look like surf days…nothing huge…just clean and rideable, which hopefully will keep most of us in the water.

On Saturday we are going to see the mix of WNW energy (280-300) and some background SSW swell (190-210). The WNW’er will fade a touch as we head into Sunday, while the SSW swell holds small and steady.



Saturday we can expect the average WNW spots and the better combo breaks to be in the waist-chest high range. The top NW facing spots and the excellent WNW/combo breaks will be more in the chest-shoulder high range with some inconsistent head high sets mixing in. The tide will be a little problematic as it peaks a high tide in midmorning but you might be able to get fun waves on either side of the peak (or even just stick to the high-tide spots).



Winds on Saturday look good…mostly light and variable to light-offshore for the morning. Look for moderate to light winds through the afternoon, mostly staying around or below the 10-knot range.



Sunday, with the WNW’er backing down, it looks like the average spots will drop into the knee-waist high range, with a few chest high waves on the lower tides. Look for the top breaks to drop into the waist-chest high range with some shoulder high sets still squeaking through in San Diego, Southern Ventura, and the South Bay.



Winds look good again on Sunday…light and clean in the morning with areas of offshore flow. Onshore winds come up a little more in the afternoon (along with some cloud cover) but there will still be some rideable pockets as the onshore flow stays light.

So nothing super exciting this weekend but there will be waves and the conditions should hold together long enough for the tide to drop in most areas, which means there should be enough room and time for us all to get a few playful peaks. With the tide being fat in the morning and the surf being a little smaller I think that it might be time to switch back to the fishy shapes and other smaller wave gear…if you do, you should be able to push your “rideable” shape/time closer to the peak of the high tide.

Here are the tides…have a good one!

12/19/2009 Saturday
03:42AM LST 2.5 L
09:44AM LST 5.4 H
05:19PM LST -0.2 L
11:58PM LST 3.6 H

12/20/2009 Sunday
04:24AM LST 2.6 L
10:18AM LST 5.0 H
05:53PM LST 0.1 L

Waves for Wednesday - A few leftover waves for Hump Day

Wednesday will be another surf day. It will have some issues with the tide, and possibly some more of that silly fog in the morning...but overall there will still be a few fun waves sneaking through at the exposed spots.

I heard a bunch of reports from our surf clan out there today that made it sound pretty fun. I even snagged a pretty fun-looking sunset session off of one of the San Diego surf cams. Check it out...



Swellwise the current WNW'er we have doing most of the work will be backing down leaving us with mostly WNW leftovers and small background pulse of SW swell. It won't be flat or anything but overall it will be smaller and less consistent.

Average spots can expect surf in the waist high range with a few waist high+ sets.

Standout NW facing breaks, mostly through San Diego but also creeping into a couple of the better winter combo spots in other regions as well, will have surf in the chest-shoulder high range on inconsistent sets.

Winds look good...mostly light and variable with a few areas of light offshore flow in the morning. Looks like overcast skies still, maybe some areas of fog...then slightly clearer skies by the afternoon. Winds stay light most of the day but will get some slight onshore bump by the second part of the day.

Expect just sort of small and playful surf for most areas tomorrow. It will be a good excuse to break out the fish or the other small wave gear and have some fun. The top spots will be a little speedier and have a little more punch but in general it won't be very critical. The tide is going to hurt it a bit more as the swell drops so try to avoid the peak of the high if you can.

Here are the tides...

01:58AM LST 3.5 H
05:30AM LST 3.2 L
11:18AM LST 4.5 H
07:24PM LST 0.5 L

Oh and a couple of notes on the long-range forecast...we will be getting another decent round of WNW swell moving in later on Thursday and peaking Friday/Saturday. This looks like it will be followed by another pulse of WNW energy on the 7-8th (and we may see a bigger SSW swell at the same time...hmmm can you say combo swell?). I will throw up some more details over the next couple of days.