Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2006 | The new, long-period southern hemi swell is filling in and will increase on Wednesday. NW wind swell has decreased quite a bit though. As the SW swell decreases later this week, some light NW will fill in along the California coast.
Right now, the California Buoy is checking in at only 4 feet but with those long, southern hemi 17-second periods. Closer to the coast, the Half Moon Bay buoy is at 3 feet with 17-second periods and Cape San Martin buoy is at 3 feet with 16-second periods.
Near-shore buoys in SoCal waters are showing southern hemi SW swell with 2.1-2.5 foot seas having 16-17 second periods.
Overall, the swell energy in the water shows southerly periods averaging 17 seconds from 225 degrees and NW periods running 8 seconds from 315 degrees.
Note that the long-period nature of the southern hemi energy will make for some dissimilarity in size between south facing breaks of varying bathymetry. Breaks with steeper bathymetry that shoal well and refract the southern energy ideally will see bigger sets than the slower, longboard breaks.
In SoCal, wave heights are running chest high at most south facing breaks with occasional pluses at standouts to shoulder high. West facing breaks are seeing waist high sets, although dual exposure spots, able to work the 220+ degree SW are seeing some pluses.
Northern California and the Central Coast are seeing chest high surf just about everywhere.
The tide is swinging quite high for late morning sessions as we slowly exit that tidal swing from the New Moon that peaked last Friday. This spring tide can…[more]
Winds as of 7 this morning were light and variable most everywhere, but slightly onshore to 8 mph in many locations. Afternoon onshores are expected to reach 12-15 mph. Wednesday, as the SW swell gains strength, the winds will…[more]
Water temperatures are averaging 69 degrees in San Diego, 68 in Orange County, 67 in LA, 66 in Ventura County, 66 in Santa Barbara, 64 along the central coast, and 59 degrees in NCal.
Southern hemi swell picks up Wednesday…[more]
South swell mixes in Thursday…[more]
Small surf this weekend, but some light NW due…[more]