Waves for the Weekend – SW swell holds while new NW swell starts to arrive

It is going to be a surf weekend. We are going to have a mix of SW and WNW swell, warm weather, light to light-offshore winds, (and probably plenty of crowded lineups to go along with it).

Our surf will be a mix of SW swell (190-210), that holds into Saturday before slowly fading out on Sunday, and small WNW energy that sort of hangs around through Saturday but increases as a new WNW pulse (290-300) starts to hit the northern counties (Ventura and LA) on Sunday before finally pushing into OC and SD later Sunday evening (and holding into Monday).

Here is a shot of the swell mix from this afternoon…you have to love SW swells sometimes.



And here is a shot of the CDIP forecast for the next few days…yes the sideways images are always annoying but once you get oriented you can see where the swell mix shows a bit better.



On Saturday average spots see chest-high+ surf while the average SW facing breaks see chest-head high waves. Standout SW facing breaks in Orange County and North San Diego will have some overhead faces through the morning.

Sunday will start out a little slower…more in the waist-chest high range at the average spots. A little bigger at the average SW facing breaks and close to shoulder high+ at the standout combo breaks. Looks like a few of top combo spots could see some chest-head high faces on the bigger sets in the afternoon (if you can find a spot not buried by the tide).

Winds look good for both days…look for light/variable to light offshore flow for the mornings and light/moderate onshore bump for the more exposed breaks through the afternoons.

I wish that there was a bit more WNW energy pushing through over the weekend…or at least the swell we are seeing would come in a bit more westerly. As it is…it looks like the SW swell is going to stay pretty lined up at the beach breaks…so we can expect some hollow but mostly closed out lefts marching down the beach. Points and reefs are going to have much better shape but since the beach breaks are sort of a lost cause it looks like the other spots are going to get pretty slammed crowdwise. I would plan on it being a bit frustrating at times.

Personally I am holding out some hope for Sunday/Monday. With a little luck the new WNW pulse will be strong enough to break up the fading SW’er…I don’t know about you but I am willing to sacrifice a little size to get a (mostly) uncrowded peak on a beach break somewhere…who knows maybe you like closeout lefts and crowded pointbreaks, you freak.

Have a great weekend!

Oh here are the tides...

Saturday
01:23AM 0.5’ Low
07:39AM 5.4’ High
02:03PM 0.8’ Low
07:50PM 4.7’ High

Sunday
01:54AM 0.8’ Low
08:04AM 5.7’ High
02:42PM 0.3’ Low
08:35PM 4.5’ High

Weekend Waves – Fun in the sun

Both Saturday and Sunday will be surf days…but Saturday will start off a bit slow.

Saturday we will have a mix of slowly building S swell and some increasing WNW energy (both windswell and NW energy). Most exposed breaks will continue to see waist high surf while the standout S facing areas see some chest high+ sets. Waves will be inconsistent at first but will fill in more as we move toward the end of the day.

Sunday the S swell (170-180) continues to slowly fill in (the main push of S-SE swell will actually peak Tuesday and Wednesday of next week). There will also be the background WNW energy helping to fill in the lesser exposed winter breaks and good combo spots. On Sunday most breaks will be around waist-chest high while the standouts see some chest-shoulder high sets off the S-swell by the end of the day.

Winds and weather look nice over the weekend…look for light and variable winds through the morning and moderate onshore breezes around 10-12 knots out of the NW by the afternoons.

The biggest surf will be showing through north OC and parts of San Diego but in general I don’t think it will be worth driving that far to try and score those waves. If you are just looking for surf you might as well look at the local areas and see if you can pick off a few there before expanding the search. If you have more of a “beach day” in mind where you surf and enjoy hanging out on the sand then it may be worth tagging on a few extra miles to head down to the OC/SD areas. Plan on bringing your smaller wave gear on Saturday. By Sunday we should be able to mix in the better “all-around” boards that work in both small and medium sized surf. Remember that thanks to the weather it will be pretty crowded at the beach…expect a lot of extra fiberglass at your favorite break.