Thursday’s Leftovers – hmmm smells like week old meatloaf

Much like the last couple of days Thursday won’t be much of a surf day.

We will basically see a small mix of leftover SW swell (200-220) and some local NW windswell. It won’t be totally flat…but as the tide fills in and the wind picks during the afternoon it will feel like it.



Average spots with some SW exposure will be in the knee high range with a rare bigger set mixing in at times. Shape will be soft and if the tide is too high it will be pretty gutless. Top SW facing spots won’t fare much better…they will hold in the knee-waist high range on the sets with some random waist high+ sets sneaking through on the lower tides in the early morning.

Winds look ok…sort of eddyish…but light through the morning. Call it light/variable onshore with a touch more texture in San Diego and OC…cleaner further north. Look for building onshore winds in the 10-14 knot range by the afternoon.



It will be small wave gear again on Thursday...big boards will work the best…but if you are a 70lb grom you might get away with a fishier shape. Winds will be light, the water is warming back up again (HB was calling it 67F today), and it won’t be a total lake…and when you get down to it any sort of surf is better than sitting behind a desk somewhere. Personally I am not going to spend a ton of time trying to find surf…but I still might paddle out to shake off some of the dust before the new swells start to fill in.

Here are the tides…

03:55AM LDT -1.1 L
10:04AM LDT 5.0 H
03:45PM LDT 0.9 L
09:44PM LDT 6.4 H

Waves for Wednesday – small and clean

Wednesday is going to be a surf day...but the new SSW swell still won’t be here yet...so the sizes will continue to be on the small side.

We are going to have a mix of overlapping SW swells and some local WNW windswell. It will look a lot like Tuesday’s surf...maybe even a touch smaller.



Wave heights, on average, are going to hold around waist high for most spots. The better combo breaks and the well exposed SW facing spots will be around waist-chest high. A few of the best standouts, in areas like South OC and North SD, will have some inconsistent chest high+ sets on the tide push in the morning.



Winds look good...light and variable for the morning (maybe a bit of fog here and there). WNW winds 10-12 knots will push through in the afternoon. Afternoon winds may even be light enough that spots with something to block or knock down the wind, like high cliffs or kelp, will be clean enough to have a decent afternoon session.

While it will be clean and rideable on Wednesday it won’t be worth driving around a lot to look for surf. The waves will be pretty similar all over SoCal (for the most part) and the summer beach craziness is in full swing, which means crowds, blackball, crowds, US Open, bikinis (not really a bad thing), and the other nonsense. Not that I really blame anyone, have you seen how freaking hot it is inland?



Anyway, your best bet will be to find a little peak, or stretch of beach, that is sort of empty and try to get on it early with the low tide, before the madness sets in. Bring your summer small-wave board, and a thin suit/vest...the water is getting pretty nice in a lot of areas. (HB was at least 65-degrees today).

Also the CDIP 3-day forecast is starting to pick up that bigger swell for the end of the week. Check out the sideways forecast...I can hardly wait for my local beach break to turn into one long walled mess. Good times.



Here are the tides...if you live in the IE try not to catch on fire tomorrow.

04:25AM LDT -1.5 L
10:43AM LDT 4.3 H
03:51PM LDT 1.5 L
09:53PM LDT 6.8 H

Random Travel Update – Mexico and Central America

I don’t know about you but I am pretty over the cold water and this mostly dismal winter. Yeah there have been a couple of swells here and there, but nothing that has been particularly noteworthy.

I have been starting to keep my eye on the South Pacific, which generally starts to get a more energetic over the next couple of months. I haven’t seen anything lining up for Socal (besides a couple of weak pulses of swell)…but I have been watching some fetch that has a bigger shot of SW swell heading toward Mainland Mexico and Northern Central America.

Now this isn’t the best swell in the world…it really isn’t that big at all…but the water will be warm, winds will be pretty decent, and it certainly will beat the hell out of surfing chilly waist-chest high stormy slop like we have been seeing.

You can actually see the storm right now on the QuikSCAT…



This is actually the second portion of the storm…there was a stronger front that rolled through setting up some nice sea-state for this fetch to work with. Like I said it isn’t super strong…most of the winds hold around 30-35 knots...but the fetch is pretty wide, it moves along the great-circle patch (so it is moving towards the region), and the pre-existing sea-state helps out as well.

This is the swell on the WWIII model…



At this point it looks like the SW swell (205-225) will start to arrive with some longer-period, 18 second, energy late on Feb 27th…and then peak late on the 28th and into March 1st before it fades out through the remainder of next week. There are a couple more storms forecast to run around down there, nothing great, but enough to keep wave heights from dropping too fast after this pulse starts to back down

This incoming swell looks like it will be a consistent chest-head high swell for most of the decent SW facing spots through the Southern Mainland Mexico and Northern Central America region. A few of the deepwater spots may see some overhead sets as it peaks.

Like I said…not huge…but it does sound a lot more fun than what we have around here. Hope some of you guys can sneak away…if anyone does get down there make sure to send me a couple of pics so that I can curl up into a ball of hypothermic jealousy.

Weekend Waves - SW swell combo fun

Looks like both Saturday and Sunday will be surf days this weekend...(hooray for us!)

We will have a mix of SW swell and some local WNW windswell. Wave heights will hold around waist-chest high for most areas. Standout SW facing spots and good combo breaks will have some shoulder-head high waves on the best sets.

Tides will be a bit of an issue early in the mornings both Saturday and Sunday. We have a negative -1.1' low (at 7am) on Saturday and a -0.8' Low (at 8am) on Sunday. These extreme low tides have a tendency to drain out a lot of the surf, especially the consistency of the sets, it also causes a lot of the beach breaks to get sectiony and walled up.

Fortunately the tides fill in through mid-morning so we get the benefit of a little more water under the surf and the extra little kick that the tide push gives to it.

Winds look OK for both days as well...there will be a slight eddy helping to keep some morning clouds and light and variable S-SE on tap for the first part of the day. W winds around 10-12 knots build in through the afternoons. These are also the kind of days that can potentially clean up around sunset...so if you live close to the beach (or will be hanging out all day) there is a chance that you might see some cleaner waves around sundown.

Your best bet for waves will be at the combo beach breaks that can handle the tide swing. The biggest surf will be showing through Northern San Diego and South Orange County...but there will be a few decent sized combo spots in other areas as well. I would plan on trying to hit it around mid-morning as the tide comes up and the wind is still light. I would also try and take an open mind because it is going to be crowded...probably really crowded. Personally I am going to check some (probably crappy) wide open beach break to see if I can find a peak with a manageable crowd.

Note on water temps...the water is getting pretty warm in a few areas (at least in North OC). Granted I am sort of built like some sort of a mix between a viking and rugby player but I surfed twice on Friday (in the morning and at lunch) and I trunked it with just a wetsuit top both times. I think most people would be pretty comfortable in a springsuit. (I haven't heard about SB or Ventura water temps...if any of you guys surf up that way drop me an email on how warm/cold the water is).

Have a great weekend...hope you have time to get a couple of waves!