Wednesday’s Surf – Sloppy seconds with a couple of clean nuggets

Wednesday will be a surf day for some areas and sort of pig nasty for a lot of others.

We are going to have plenty of swell on Wednesday. There will be a mix of steady S swell from the Southern Hemi, a hefty dose of WNW windswell, and some really ugly short-period S windswell (which will be mostly wind bump).

Almost all areas are going to see shoulder-head high surf tomorrow. The standout S facing spots, NW windswell breaks, and combo spots will have overhead+ sets mixing in.

The real problem is going to be the wind. There is a strong eddy that is already building this evening and will max out tomorrow. It basically means a lot of NW winds through Santa Barbara and to a lesser degree through Ventura. It also means that San Diego and Orange County can expect S-SW winds around 10-15 knots through the morning, which will be a total mess.

It looks like the only area that gets much of a break is North LA County and the South Bay. Thanks to the position of the eddy it looks like LA dodges a bullet. North LA will have light N winds while the South Bay sees light S winds both of which are decent directions for each area.

I would say that LA would be the best bet for tomorrow…at least for the morning. Onshore winds will push in for all areas by the afternoon and the outer waters are going to get thrashed…probably 20-30+ knots. The North LA spots will probably have the best shape because they are working off the cleaner S swell. The South Bay will be a stacked up mix of large windswell.

There will be a few fallback spots in other areas…in San Diego and OC look for those spots that are protected from the S winds (like Dana Point breaks in the OC and La Jolla spots in SD). Ventura and Santa Barbara areas it will be best if you head to spots that are sheltered from the N flow…the insides of a lot of the points may be alright but the windswell shape is going to leave a lot to be desired.

Monday’s Surf – Sleep in…

Monday is not looking like much of a surf day.

Our swell mix of S-SW swell and WNW energy will be backing off…and the NW windswell is slipping past us due to its steep swell angle.

Wave heights on average will be around knee-waist high for most spots with exposure to at least one of the swells. Standout combo breaks, mostly through San Diego, will have a few chest high sets on the lower tides.

The wind is what is really going to put the nail in the coffin so to speak…the outer water NW winds are expected to stay strong overnight and continue to spin up the SoCal eddy as we head into Monday (in fact the eddy is forecast to stick around most of the week, which pretty much blows…uh so to speak). So for Monday morning we can expect S-SW winds for most of Orange County and San Diego and NW-WNW winds for most of Santa Barbara, Ventura, and Northern LA.

If you have to surf on Monday…make sure to bring your small wave gear and try and stick to spots that are protected from whatever winds that your region will have. I think the best surf will be in spots like the northern South Bay, around central Orange County, and down at select spots in La Jolla in San Diego. Those areas will be cleaner, than most but will still have the potential to pick up at least a few waves from the swell mix.

WTF…Rain!?!

The eddy winds that were supposed to move out overnight have held on a little longer than expected. Most areas from Santa Barbara through LA are seeing offshore winds already. OC is cleaning up but has some funky drizzle still this morning. San Diego, unfortunately, is pretty sloppy.

The good news is the offshore winds are still coming but it is going to take a couple of hours for them to get established. Look for cleaning up (and drying up) conditions as we head into the afternoon.

You guys in LA and Ventura can get bent because it is already offshore there. (just kidding...)