Surf for Monday – Is the circus over yet?

Monday will be a sort-of surf day…but we are still going to have wind and tide issues for a lot of areas.

On Monday we are going to see a mix of S-SW swell (190-215) from a couple of overlapping southern hemi swells. We are also going to have some background, and very short period, NW windswell. The S-SW swells have slowly been shifting more southerly over the last day so more energy has been starting to slip into spots that were shadowed earlier in the weekend. Check out the current CDIP…



Wavewise the average spots are going to be in the waist-chest high range through the early morning. The standout breaks, mostly through Orange County, the more exposed areas of North LA, and a few North San Diego spots, will be running more consistently in the chest-shoulder high range…maybe even a couple of bigger ones on the early low tide. The building tide is going to swamp out a few of the more sensitive by midmorning so if your local spot needs a lower tide you are going to want to get on it pretty early.

Winds will be similar to what we had over the weekend…so expect a light, but consistent, westerly flow around 4-8 knots through the morning and then W-NW winds around 10-15 knots by the afternoon. The current NWS wind model is showing a cleaner pocket around the South OC and North SD area (right through the areas that have the higher coastal hills)…so there may be a few cleaner waves through there in the morning. Don’t expect it to last too long though.



Overall I think your best bet is going to be to try and surf the dawn patrol. The winds will be lighter and the tide will be coming off the negative low (that hits around 4am)…the combo of that with the fun-size swell should set up a few rideable (maybe even fun) waves at the S facing spots. I don’t think you should drive very far tomorrow…the conditions won’t hold up, and with both increasing wind and higher tides the shape will fall apart fast. The waters temps are still jacked up too (HB Guards are calling the pier 55 degrees today)...bring all of your rubber if you are going out.

Here are the tides…and if you get a chance, maybe pick up a piece of trash when you are heading back to the car in the morning (you guys are probably on it already…sorry I am not usually so earthy in the forecast…the beach is just nasty after the big holidays.)

04:05AM LDT -0.6 L
10:34AM LDT 3.6 H
02:58PM LDT 2.4 L
09:05PM LDT 5.8 H

Random Surf Report – Stupid wind

If you didn’t get a chance to surf this morning...don’t worry you aren’t missing much.

Our first little shot of S swell is filling in this morning...it is a bit inconsistent and really it isn’t doing so hot as we head to nearly a 6-foot high tide...but it is out there and mixing with some other WNW swell energy.

Unfortunately the winds are getting an early start to it...check out the wind analysis from 7am this morning.



WNW-NW winds for most spots...not super strong but this was at dawn...and it is just expected to get worse this afternoon. There are a couple of semi-clean areas...North LA County is alright if you stick around the Malibu area (not much swell there though)...and Northern San Diego county, which has more swell, mostly light winds, but is starting to see some funky texture picking up.

This isn’t much of an update...but if you were planning on trying to surf today I wouldn’t spend a lot of time checking it.

I’ll be back with the forecast for Friday...and the overview of the upcoming weekend later this afternoon.

Surf for Monday – Slow increase

Monday is looking surfable…but we are going to see a little funkiness from an approaching storm front.

We are going to see a slight increase of the WNW mix, inconsistent SW pulse, and some local NW windswell. It isn’t going to be that big but it should slowly get more consistent throughout the day thanks to some initial energy from a storm forming further off the California Coast.

We can expect the average spots to continue to see surf in the waist-high range with some chest high sets. The top combo spots, mostly through San Diego and parts of South OC, see some chest high sets. I would keep an eye on the best west facing beaches late in the afternoon/evening hopefully we can see some early energy leaking in from the approaching swell…I wouldn’t count on it but if you live close it might be worth keeping an eye on the surf cams.

Winds and weather mostly look good…that storm off the coast is going to start edging over the area, but like that system last week, the outer front really only honks with the upper level stuff (so we see clouds, some scattered showers, but not a lot of wind on the surface.)

I am expecting mostly light and variable winds through the morning…and sort of variable onshore winds in the afternoon. I don’t think it will be super glassy but I do think that it will be clean enough to get a few waves throughout most of the day.

12:01AM LST 2.5 L
05:53AM LST 4.8 H
01:19PM LST -0.4 L
07:46PM LST 3.6 H

Oh hey…make sure to check out my interview over on Dailystoke.com…they asked me a bunch of questions about forecasting and I wrote really long answers so they are going to break up the responses over the next few days…so make sure to check ‘em out.