Friday’s Cold Front – Not looking like much fun

Friday is not going to be a surf day.

We have a new cold front that is moving down the coast this evening and will be pushing over SoCal tomorrow. Conditions are going to depend a lot on how the front behaves, how fast it moves, and the exact angle that it pushes over us...but for the most part conditions are looking pretty sloppy tomorrow.

Local windswell will be on the rise throughout the day tomorrow and it will be mixing with some more S-SW energy, and some longer-period WNW swell (290-300). Most spots will be in the waist-chest high+ range while the standout NW facing spots, mostly around San Diego and Southern Ventura, will have some shoulder-head high+ surf by the end of the day. The biggest spots will also be the most exposed to the wind so don’t expect much rideable size.

Winds will be the biggest issue. Current COAMPs model is calling for the front to stall out a little overnight and leave a little eddy going early tomorrow morning. Check out the model...



If it does it looks like LA might have a little semi-clean pocket for the dawn patrol. This doesn’t last long though...and then it is all onshore winds out of the W-SW around 10-15+ knots the rest of the day. Probably some stronger gusts and a little bit of rain as well.

For tomorrow I would just plan on taking it easy...wait for there to be enough light for a cam check if you live close enough to a spot that has some S wind protection. Other than that it looks like it is going to be pretty messy tomorrow. Personally I don’t think I am going to get much surf...most of my local spots don’t like the S winds...but I may keep an eye on the trees outside and see if something funky spins up as the front moves over us.

04:09AM LDT 4.6 H
11:59AM LDT -0.3 L
06:50PM LDT 3.6 H
11:52PM LDT 2.2 L

Surf on Friday – Approaching Storm

Overall Friday is not going to be much of a surf day but again we are going to see a small window of cleaner conditions through the morning.

Swellwise we are going to continue to have a mix of WNW-NW windswell with short sort of ugly swell periods…there will be a bit of longer-period WNW energy holding in the background but it is mostly going to get lost in the junkiness.

Wave heights we are going to see more of the chest-shoulder high range at the average NW facing spots. The standouts, again mostly in SD (and maybe Southern Ventura) will have some shoulder-head high sets but with relatively poor shape.

Weatherwise the new storm front is moving down the coast but forecasts have been slowly edging its arrival further and further back…at this point it is calling for S-SW winds building through the morning and then turning WSW 10-20+25 knots by midday/afternoon as the main chunk of weather starts to arrive.

Again it looks like there may be a little window of lighter winds in the morning…check out the COAMPS for tomorrow morning.



I haven’t be totally stoked on the COAMPS accuracy but it is showing a little bubble of light blue (winds under 5 knots) for the morning…even a couple of spots with sort of SE flow like Long Beach and the South Bay. It doesn’t last long but it may mean that there is a chance for rideable surf (rideable being a relative term) in the morning.

Really I wouldn’t plan on getting a lot of surf tomorrow…and I wouldn’t spend a lot of time driving around to get the slim shot at waves in the morning. It is more of a “hey I live sort of close to the beach…maybe I should look at a cam in the morning and see if it is already blown out sort of thing”. Nothing exciting…hopefully this lame part of the winter will end soon and we can get back to some cleaner conditions (and maybe a little combo swell).

Here are the tides…

05:40AM LST 0.8 L
11:22AM LST 3.9 H
05:26PM LST 0.8 L
11:52PM LST 4.8 H