Waves for Wednesday – big WNW swell builds throughout the day

Wednesday will be a surf day…a really good surf day (if you don’t mind the questionable water quality).

The WNW swell (280-300) will be on the rise throughout the day on Wednesday and will mix with some lumpy local windswell and a trace of SW swell that will basically evaporate in the bigger WNW-NW swell.

Due to the nature of the WNW swell angle and the timing of the storm, we can expect a pretty significant increase in swell for Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties early on Wednesday…but the swell won’t be peaking for those areas until late in the day…likely after dark.

Eventually the swell will push into to all the exposed NW breaks…we can even expect a few waves showing early but not a really big jump in wave heights until later in the afternoon. Check out how the CDIP wave model shows the swell filling in on Wednesday…

Here it is at 3am



and 9am



By 3pm it continues to fill in




Winds look ok for Wednesday…sort of light/variable for the morning with some leftover texture and onshore flow for a few areas. The forecast is calling for a touch more wind than I think it should…mostly because it is freezing ass cold and that has a tendency to throw together a land-breeze as the ground temps drop lower than the ocean…I think we will have fairly clean conditions early but enough instability that variable onshore bump returns around midday and possibly strengthens into the afternoon.



So as this swell builds I expect the best shape to be at the points/reefs…this sort of size will just close out the directly exposed beach breaks...there may be a window in the morning for the southerly counties where the size hasn’t jumped too much and the beach breaks will be more makeable, just expect it to shift around by the end of the day. Water quality won’t be the best…really with the amount of rain it will be pretty nasty at the spots affected by runoff…so as usual we end up having to weigh the risks of catching some nasty against the quality of the surf. Personally I am going to hunt around some of the more protected areas close to home…but if I had a real point/reef sort of close that would be my first check. If your region really sucks on these swells for some reason, and you love big waves, this would be a good swell to drive a little further for…but I might save it for Thursday as the swell peaks everywhere, not just further north.

Here are the tides…good luck, stay safe, and send me some pictures if you get a chance.

12/09/2009 Wednesday
03:31AM LST 4.8 H
10:01AM LST 1.7 L
03:20PM LST 3.6 H
09:34PM LST 1.0 L

Monday’s Surf – The new WNW’er peaks

Monday will definitely be a surf day. We have the new WNW swell (that really starting to grind its way into SoCal) and decent winds for the morning and most of the early afternoon. About the only lameness is a consistent layer of thick fog that is going to swing back and forth across the coastal areas.

Swellwise the majority of the energy hitting SoCal tomorrow will be the WNW swell (285-300) but there will also be some S swell (180-190) hiding in the background. Check out the CDIP…the swell is finally starting to show more around 290-degrees compared to a lot of the initial energy that was coming in closer to 300-degrees.



Most spots with some WNW facing exposure will be in the chest-shoulder high range with some head high sets. The standout NW facing spots, mostly in San Diego but also in the Ventura and South Bay areas, will have consistent shoulder-overhead sets. Top spots in San Diego will have sets going 2-3’+ overhead at times.

Winds look good…mostly light and variable through the morning but watch for some funky texture from the fog winds. Overall I would expect cleaner conditions at spots with some protection from light winds…the more open beach breaks may be a touch bumpy at times.

There is still going to be a pretty big size difference between the top NW facing spots and the average breaks…so if you are looking for bigger surf you are going to want to check those winter standouts. San Diego will have the most consistent, and the biggest, surf but Southern Ventura and the top South Bay spots will have some size as well. With the fog I am not so sure how worth it will be to do a lot of driving…you might spend a bit too much time on the road and not be able to see the surf when you get there. But if you are fine rolling the dice there will definitely be plenty of energy if you stick to the better areas.

Have a good one…here are the tides.

12:01AM LST 3.3’ H
03:39AM LST 2.9’ L
09:54AM LST 5.3’ H
05:53PM LST 0.1’ L