Tuesday’s Surf – Looks pretty sloppy

Tuesday is not looking like much of a surf day…we will have plenty of swell but conditions are going to continue the funky trend we saw on Monday.

Swellwise we are going to have a mix of fading SW swell, local NW windswell, and some tropical S-SE swell from the combination of TS Boris and to a lesser degree TS Cristina.

Expect the average S facing spots and combo spots to have surf in the chest-shoulder high range. Standout S facing breaks, like North Orange County, and good combo spots will have more consistently chest-head high surf with a few select spots seeing some bigger waves.

Unfortunately shape is going to look pretty poor…winds are expected to stay onshore most of the night and then pick up again early tomorrow morning. There may not be a ton of wind for the dawn patrol but the leftover bump will still be tweaking things pretty hard so shape isn’t going to get a chance to recover all that much. Look for W winds 10-15 knots to get on it by midmorning and then top out at nearly 20-knots by late in the afternoon.

This is what the COAMP wind analysis looks like from Monday…Tuesday is going to be pretty similar, which if you don’t mind the pun…really f-ing blows.




Because there is going to be some size tomorrow I would at least get up and do a camera check in the morning (or if you live close enough make a quick drive-by)…we might get lucky with a smaller semi-surfable window in the morning…I am not holding my breath but there is always a chance. It doesn’t look like this wind pattern is going to change a whole bunch over the next couple of days so we are going to have to scrape out our surf sessions when we can.

Weekend Surf – more SW swell (and maybe a little tropical energy)

Looks like we should have a decent surf weekend.

Our SW swell will fill in more overnight and peak into Saturday before slowly fading out on Sunday. Local NW windswell will hold in the background for most of the weekend as well.

Most spots with SW exposure will continue to see waist-chest high surf while the standout South OC and North San Diego SW facing surf spots see shoulder-head high+ sets. It will be a bit inconsistent on the bigger sets but we should have some playful sizes as we move through the tide push.

Sunday will be a touch smaller with more waist than chest high surf at the average spots and smaller sets (mostly shoulder high) at the top SW facing spots.

Winds look ok…well at least the eddy is supposed to back off over the weekend. Generally expect light/variable winds on Saturday morning and touch more variable onshore texture on Sunday. Both afternoons will have onshore winds around 10-15+ knots so try and surf early rather than later if you can.

Now about the tropical swell…there are 2 tropical systems spinning in the SoCal swell window…the better looking one is TS Boris whose storm core has just barely moved into the extreme SE portion of our swell window. TD-3E is the other system it is about 1200 miles due south of us…and while it doesn’t have the wind speeds Boris does it is showing some spin on the satellite loop which means that there is a chance at getting some minor swell from it.




At this point I wouldn’t expect much, if any energy to really show over the weekend, if some does it will be very short-period S swell from TS-3E, which would arrive later on Sunday. Overall it won’t add any size but it may help to increase the consistency of our surf.

Boris on the other hand is moving into our window and is expected to strengthen as he does. His storm track (WNW at 8-knots) isn’t the greatest but he is showing good rotation and some halfway decent wind speeds. Right now I am expecting to see at least a waist-chest high SE swell from Boris that starts to fill in on Monday and will eventually peak Monday night into Tuesday of next week. A lot depends on how he actually behaves over the next 24-30 hours or so…but like I said at this point I am expecting surf from him.

Here check out some of the charts on Boris...

Friday’s Surf – Looks pretty fun

Friday is going to be a surf day.

We are going to have a mix of fading SW energy, new long-period SW swell, and some local windswell…all of which will team up with cleaner conditions (especially compared to what we have seen over the last couple of mornings).

Sizewise look for a lot of spots to hold in the waist-chest high range…the better combo breaks will have some chest high+ sets particularly as the new long-period SW’er starts to arrive. (really this new swell looks better for Saturday but the leftover SW energy should help to fill in the gaps).

Standout SW facing breaks in Northern San Diego and South Orange County will have surf in the waist-shoulder high range with some inconsistent head high (maybe even bigger) sets coming through on the tide push.

Winds are forecast to be light and variable in the morning…maybe even light offshore for some of LA and Ventura areas. Look for onshore winds out of the W around the usual 10-12+ knots during the afternoon.

I think Friday should be pretty fun at almost all of the combo spots in SoCal (just make sure they have good SW exposure). It won’t be huge or anything but the mix of swells, the cleaner conditions, and the fact that the water is warming back up make for a pretty good argument for surfboard riding. If you are looking for bigger and more consistent surf I would head to SD and South OC…they will be the most exposed to the swell mix. Other areas will be smaller but will still be rideable so don’t worry if you can’t afford the $8.50 per gallon that we are going to see at the pumps tomorrow.