Waves for Wednesday – Mostly weak leftovers

Wednesday will not be much of a surf day.

There will be a mix of leftover WNW-NW swell (285-300), some local windswell, and some trace SW energy. Unfortunately there won’t really be enough energy to punch through the high morning tide…and the swell will continue to back off even as the tide finally starts to drain out.



Look for most of the average WNW-NW facing spots to be in the knee-thigh high range with inconsistent and swampy shape through the morning. A few of the better than average NW combo spots may have some waist high+ sets but again they will be inconsistent and pretty soft through the first part of the day. Standout NW facing breaks, mostly those through San Diego, a few parts of Ventura, and the best breaks in the South Bay, will have some knee-waist high waves with some very occasional chest high+ sets.

Winds look only ok (as opposed to OK)…most spots will see some light/variable winds through the morning with a general sort of onshore tint to it. The morning sickness shouldn’t be as bad as it was (in some spots) on Tuesday since the winds are forecast to lay down a bit more tonight…but expect a little texture/crumble to the more exposed breaks.



Overall it will be another small/soft/slow swell-tide shutdown tomorrow morning. Yeah you might find a few little peaks on the really shallow sandbars, or at breaks that really like the NW swell mix, but it won’t be worth hunting around a lot for waves…really you might just want to give the cameras a check in the morning since it won’t be worth burning too much of your gasoline (which is getting close to being liquid gold again!). If you HAVE to surf, like some of you do…bring your big boards…I don’t think you are going to get much fun out of your fish unless you weigh like 80lbs.

Here are the tides…

12/02/2009 Wednesday
01:46AM LST 2.1 L
07:59AM LST 6.7 H
03:31PM LST -1.2 L
09:58PM LST 3.6 H

Waves for the weekend – on the weak side

Saturday and Sunday will both be clean and small but the combo of high tides and general lack of waves will keep it from being very surfy.

Not much surf on tap this weekend…just minor pulses of NW (290-300), some SW (200-220) leftovers as well as a tiny touch of windswell.

Saturday Morning Swell



Sunday Morning Swell



Average spots that can pick up some of the swell mix are going to hang in the knee high range through the weekend with a few rare waist high sets sneaking through on the lower tides.

Standout NW facing spots and the good NW/SW combo breaks will be more consistently in the knee-waist high range…again with a couple of waist-high+ sets on the lower tides.

Overall we can expect shape to be soft, slow, and close to shore at the best of times. When the high tides peak many spots will be almost completely unrideable…turning into mostly shorebreak lappers… so you are going to want to avoid them if you can…if not, well try and stick to spots that can handle a lot of extra water (particularly in the morning).

Winds look ok for the next couple of days…sort of light/variable to light offshore in the mornings, with a touch more onshore texture on Saturday morning. Afternoon winds stay on the moderate side…right in the NW 10-14 knot range.

Saturday Morning Winds



Sunday Morning Winds



I wish we had more surf coming through this weekend…it is a shame to have nice conditions without much to ride. It won’t be completely flat if you can stay away from the high tides…but definitely plan on bringing your small wave gear…longboards will probably be best if you weigh over 100-lbs.

Here are the tides…gave a good weekend and a great Halloween! (Oh and the time change is this weekend...make sure to change your clocks).

Saturday
01:45AM LDT 1.2 L
07:52AM LDT 5.6 H
02:41PM LDT 0.3 L
08:38PM LDT 4.2 H

Sunday
01:11AM LST 1.4 L
07:17AM LST 5.9 H
02:16PM LST -0.2 L
08:20PM LST 4.1 H

Monday’s Surf – Small and Soft

Not much swell on tap on Monday so it looks like another sub-par surf day. There will be decent morning conditions but just not much to ride.

We are going to have a mix of small local WNW windswell and some background S-SW energy neither of which are very big or will amount to much rideable surf.

On average the exposed spots will be around knee high…maybe smaller on the high tide but with a few knee-high+ sets on the lowest tides. The top spots, mostly in San Diego, will have a few waist high+ sets on the lower tides but don’t expect much push even with the bigger sizes.

Winds look good…mostly chilly light/variable to light offshore with some light to moderate NW flow (around 10-12 knots for the afternoon). Mostly sunny skies again as well.

Like I said…not much going on for the start of the week. You might be able to get out and longboard a few softies tomorrow but don’t expect a lot out of it…it will just basically be a way to wash the dust off.

Here are the tides…

03:09AM LST 2.4 L
09:13AM LST 5.6 H
04:46PM LST -0.5 L
11:18PM LST 3.6 H

Looking out at the long-range forecast it does look like the wave drought is going to end…or at least start to ease out of this nonsense we have been slogging through the last few weeks.

Right now we have a new storm down in the South Pacific (of all places) that managed to scrape up some 40-50 knot winds in an area of fetch aimed towards SoCal.



It doesn’t have the best storm track after it throws up those wind speeds but anything is better that what we have been seeing. From the looks of it we should see a decent waist-chest high+ (maybe shoulder high) SW swell (195-215) moving in around January 4th and peaking into the 5th…holding into the 6th before fading out.

It also looks like there will be some new storm action over by Japan taking place in the next couple of days that if it can pull together might get us some longer-period WNW swell (285-300) that would start leaking in around the same time…not big or anything…but again at least better than what we have right now.

I’ll keep you posted as we get closer…hopefully there will be enough waves for all of the guys that have been sitting out the last couple of weeks.

Waves for the weekend – Not a lot of changes

There will be some rideable waves this weekend but overall it is not going to be very exciting.

Both Saturday and Sunday will see a mix of low-grade S-SW pulses, some local windswell, and some background WNW energy.

Most spots will be around knee-waist high. A few of the standout SW facing breaks and good combo spots will have some inconsistent chest high-chest high+ sets that sneak through on occasion but expect long waits between bigger waves.

Winds will generally be OK as well. There will be some slight eddy circulation at times particularly through San Diego and Orange County during the mornings. Most beaches will have light/variable winds but OC and SD may have a touch of S-SW texture at times. All spots will have W winds around 10-15 knots by the afternoon.

It is basically boring summertime surf this weekend. Lots of gutless, mushy, mini-waves with an occasional set slipping through at the top spots. San Diego combo spots should be the biggest this weekend but “big” is sort of a relative term…it won’t be worth driving very far for any of the surf and it really won’t be worth jumping county lines (unless you folks in Santa Barbara just can’t stand another weekend of summertime flatness).

Oh yeah make sure to check out the long-range outlook that I just posted. Here is the link if you are to lazy to look for it.

Click here for the Extended Range Forecast

Thursday’s Surf – Starting to look like groundhog day out there

this would be the greatest groundhog's day ever!

Thursday will be another marginal surf day…semi-rideable at the best spots but only if you get the tides, winds, and the inconsistent sets just right.

Swellwise we will have a mix of mostly S-SSW leftovers and local windswell. There is another pulse of WNW energy (290-300) that is slowly filling into the background energy but it doesn’t look much better than the current swell mix…basically just a slightly punchier windswell.

Most spots will be in the ankle-knee high range. The top S-SW spots and the good combo breaks will have some waist high (maybe even waist high+) sets.

Really I am very excited about the surf tomorrow…it will be longboardable or maybe even surfable with a fishy shape if you are open minded…but overall it is going to be pretty soft and slow. Definitely a good beginner’s day…especially if you aren’t comfortable in sizeable surf. I will be probably surfing my pillow, building a sandcastle, and/or changing the unending flow of poopy diapers.

Wednesday’s Waves – Slow pickup

Wednesday will be barely rideable for most areas…but on average it should be a touch bigger than it was on Tuesday.

We are going to have a mix of very small but increasing SW energy, local windswell, and some of the more northerly counties (like Santa Barbara and Ventura) will see a slight jump in WNW energy late in the evening. (Check out the other post on the WNW’er that I put up before this one).

On average most spots will continue to hold around ankle-knee high with some rare waist high sets. Standout SW facing spots and some of the better combo breaks will have some rare chest high sets. Look for the biggest and most consistent surf to show at the better SW facing spots in San Diego and South Orange County.

Winds are forecast to be clean again on Wednesday with mostly light and variable conditions in the morning. Increasing W winds will build in around 10-15 knots by the afternoon.

Personally I don’t think it is going to be much of a surf day…but I generally get bogged down in surf that is below waist high and have to resort to longboarding just to get any sort of ride. If you are just looking to paddle around, maybe catch an inconsistent set or two, and look at the girls/guys/seagulls on the beach then it would still be worth throwing the board in the car…but just don’t drive very far for your beach day.

Weekend Surf - good beginners weekend or as I like to call it "pretty freaking small"

There will be a few waves this weekend but they will be small, soft, and not really all that rideable unless you are breaking out the big boards.

Swellwise we are going to limp through both Saturday and Sunday with small ankle-waist high waves at most of the average spots. Standout breaks will be in the knee-chest high range off the mix of S-SW leftovers and NW windswell.

Winds look ok...mostly light and variable in the mornings with some onshore bump around 10 knots for the afternoons. It looks like the combo of heavier, more humid, air and light winds through the afternoons may create the potential for cleaner conditions around sundown on both Saturday and Sunday...if only we had some waves to go with it.

From a surf-perspective there aren't a lot of reasons to paddle out this weekend...but on the other hand it will be being nice and warm and surfing is always better than doing chores or running errands...so in the head-to-head battle I think surfing wins. Just don't expect a ton from it and you can probably convince yourself that you are having fun.