Travel Update: Another SW’er for Central America and Mainland Mex

I was just looking at the SPAC charts and there is another string of SW swells (190-220), with one bigger pulse of SW right in the middle, heading to Central America and Mainland Mexico.

These swells start arriving in the area around the 9th…with one swell peaking on the 11-12th and another peaking on the 13-14th.

The first swell is already in the water…you can see the fetch nice and clear on the quikSCAT…



The second and third swells are forming over the next 48-72 hours, and I have seen them on the charts for a few days so I think they are fairly credible at this point. Check ‘em out on the Wavewatch-III swell period graphic.



Sizewise…the first pulse that arrives on the 9th looks good for chest-head high waves for most of the average areas…a few of the standouts will have some bigger sets but it won’t be huge or anything. Just a fun, warm water, early season swell.

The second and third swells (which really blend into a single big pulse of SW swell) start arriving on the 11th…but really peak more from the 12-14th and then trail off very slowly after that. These swells look good for consistent head high to overhead surf for most of the average spots. The top spots will have sets going a couple of feet overhead on the biggest waves…and the deepwater spots, like Puerto, will see some sets nearing double overhead (but probably not quite getting there).

Socal will see much, much, smaller versions of these swells arriving on the 11th and then again on the 14-16th. It will be closer to chest-shoulder high at the average spots around Socal…with some bigger waves showing in OC and parts of San Diego. Also if you look at the swell-period chart again…it looks like a little long-period WNW will be showing around that time too. So there is a chance at some playful waves…much smaller, colder, and less consistent playful waves…for those of us that can’t make the trip.

Hope some of you can sneak away…as always I love to see pictures and get reports if you do head down that way.

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.