+++Wave Weather Warning+++

Thought I'd give a shout out today to the little waves and weather coming our way Thursday. Currenty we have a fun NW running about head high but the cold front that moved through our area yesterday is putting some SW wind bump on it. And as usual with our luck, we have cleaner condtions tomorrow but dropping swell. But things change for the better later this week. As you can see on the swell map above, Wednesday looks small for southern California but there is some WNW swell in the water that will fill in on Thursday- probably in the head high range for north SD/OC, a little bigger down in south SD and and about waist high+ in southern OC . We also have some offshore winds setting up on Wednesday that will last into Thursday. At this time it looks like the offshores will be strongest on Wednesday but there won't be much swell. So Thursday looks to be the call with fun surf and lingering offshore winds. Get your work done this week and make sure to take an extended lunch on Thursday!   

La Nina Summer 2011 Forecast

A friend of mine asked me yesterday what the weather forecast for summer was going to be. Since I can't predict the future (actually I can but I've been sworn by the government and the CA Lottery to keep my powers a secret) I can only speculate how the current La Nina will influence the weather 6 months from now. First off, let me say that I love El Nino summers. El Nino's for southern California are characterized by warmer water temperatures, less fog, and an increase in monsoonal moisture to make it more humid and feel like a slice of Hawaii around here. With that being said, you can only guess what La Nina brings- colder water temperatures which has a profound effect on various aspects of the weather. First off there are a variety of factors which create fog but one of them is the contrast of cold water and the warmer land temperatures. With La Nina creating colder water temperatures, it only enhances the chances of creating fog- and our air temps are cooler at the coast. Secondly, cold water means less of a chance you're going to wear trunks in the water this summer- remember how many days you trunked it last summer- the start of this current La Nina? Probably just a handful of days. And lastly, with the colder water temperatures, there's less of a chance of hurricanes forming in the Pacific off mainland Mexico, moving towards Cabo, and eventually heading towards us. With less tropical moisture forming there's less of a chance of hurricane surf for us or their humid clouds drifting overhead. Now of course there are a million factors at work in our atmosphere so all of this could be turned on it's head. A good example would be the deluge of rain we received this past December. Being a La Nina year, we shouldn't have had the wet dump we got, but an anomaly in the Arctic Oscillation fed us more moisture than usual. The good news in all of this is that the La Nina will start fading towards the end of spring and anything can happen. Last summer was a real dud so let's hope for the best in 2011! For more info on the current La Nina, check out the weekly update from NOAA.

Pacific Station- Downtown Encinitas

Even though it's unofficially been 'open' for a few weeks now, the official ribbon cutting ceremony at Pacific Station in downtown Encinitas is happening today, Friday, January 28th at 4:30pm. What's Pacific Station you ask? Well if you've somehow circumnaviagted around downtown Encinitas the past 24 months, you couldn't miss the biggest development in years being constructed. It's a unique property with retail on the first floor and residential above as well as underground parking. The real kicker is Whole Foods being an anchor of the development but is still months away from being completed. Once finished, I'm there with my first $500 shopping bill. The other anchor is Solace, a restaraunt derived from the ever popular Urban Solace from North Park San Diego. The hip dining spot will also include a bar called the Moonlight Lounge. As with Whole Foods, they are still banging away and are months from completion. Best case scenario looks to be late spring for Whole Foods and hopefully next month for Solace. Pacific Station also includes a plaza to draw consumers to the other retailers on-site as well as a new outdoor dining patio for upscale Barracuda Grill. There are 47 residential units above the restaraunts and retailers and 1/3 look to be sold or in the process of being sold already. Not bad in a down economy. Prices for the homes range from $300k to $1 mil and are anywhere from 600 sf to 2300 sf. Anyway, if you get a chance, cruise by Pacific Station the next time you're in the area and make sure to support the local retailers. And when Solace opens, I'll buy you a drink. Don't quote me on that though.

Quiksilver Pro New York

In case you were all Rip Van Winkle yesterday or didn't hear the rumors the past few months, Quiksilver and the Association of Surfing Professionals announced yesterday that the surfing world tour is coming to New York this September in the form of the Quiksilver Pro New York. Yes, that New York. The city that never sleeps. The Big Apple. Home of Jay-Z, Saturday Night Live, and hot dogs from street vendors that probably are really selling dogs in those buns. The amazing part isn't that it's being held in the media capital of the world or that NY surf is notoriously fickle but rather the $1 million dollar prize purse. Plus you have to factor in the permit costs, construction costs, etc etc etc. And since Nike/Hurley have stepped it up big time with the construction of a small city every summer at the US Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach, CA (with attendance near a half million people during the week long event), I expect Quiksilver to do at least the same. With the population of New York City alone at 8 million, this event could be absolutely nuts. Glad I'm not workin security detail at this event. The official press release is below.

Quiksilver and the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) have announced a new stop on the ASP 2011 World Tour. The Quiksilver Pro New York will be the sixth stop of the tour, taking place in Long Beach, New York from September 4-15, 2011.

The Quiksilver Pro New York will be the first ASP World Title Race held on the East Coast and the first professional surfing event with a $1 million prize purse. The Quiksilver Pro Global Series also includes the Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast in Australia, February 26 to March 9,2010, and the Quiksilver Pro France, October 4-15, 2010.

“We are beyond excited to host the biggest pro surf event in the world this September in New York,” said CEO of Quiksilver Bob McKnight. “There has always been a huge contingent of dedicated surfers and surf enthusiasts on the East Coast and they will now get a chance to watch the world’s best surfers in Long Beach.”

“ASP International is very pleased to sanction The Quiksilver Pro New York, which joins a short and prestigious list of ASP World Tour sites around the world, including Australia, Portugal, France, South America and Hawaii’s North Shore,” said ASP International CEO Brodie Carr. “In addition to bringing the world’s best surfers to the East Coast of the United States, Quiksilver is breaking boundaries as the first event in history to put up a $1 Million prize purse. This speaks volumes of Quiksilver’s commitment to excellence, and the ASP has every confidence in our teams working together to produce the best possible event. Long Island is considered one of the hallowed sites of East Coast surfing and the experts at both Quiksilver and the ASP, as well as the unparalleled talent of the ASP Top 34, will come together to make this one of the most memorable events in surfing history.”

According to an independent study from Surfline.com, September 4-15 is one of the most consistent periods for sizable surf in Long Island, New York. “The surf climate in Western Long Island is greatly affected by the underwater Hudson Canyon offshore, which can turn average surf into very high quality surf comparable to many of the best surf spots in the world on the right day. We are also in a La Nina year, so we expect the 2011 Atlantic hurricane season to be a little more active and hopefully we can score great surf with the world’s top surfers in one of the best cities in the world,” said Chief Forecaster and President of Surfline.com Sean Collins.

“When I was young, I remember some great waves on Long Island with my brother Sean and our friends,” said 10x ASP World Champion Kelly Slater. “This event itself will be unique and kind of an unknown for us and bringing the ASP tour to New York will be fun ’cause there’s a big surf culture there already and some great surf shops.”

Deal Alert! West Wetsuits at Seshday.com

Bam! Wetsuits on sale! Nothing better. Well, next to winning the lottery. Or getting Swami's uncrowded. Or maybe getting one of those big pieces of mud pie at Chart House and...

Anyway, the air temp may be warm today but the water is freezing. Head on over to Seshday and sign up if you're not a member yet. It's free and you'll get stupid discounts like 4 mil West Wetsuits for $189- that's 40% off for all you bargain hunters. And for all you high performance guys- you know who you are- the ones riding the CI 5'8" Dumpster Divers and using 5' Creatures of Leisure leashes- West has a $169 all 2 mil fullsuit for the spring and fall sessions. You'll surf like Gumby. Which I think is a good thing...

And remember- all good things come to an end once the stock runs out so head over to Seshday now and get on it fool!

THE Surf Report for 1/28/11

All good things must come to an end.

SURF:

Wintertime in so-Cal doesn't get any better than that. Except for the hordes of goons running into each other in the line-ups, it was pretty all-time this past week. Plenty of head high to overhead surf, offshore winds, sunny skies, and Mr. South Swell made a small appearance too for the wave starved central OC. Today is the last day we get good conditions and surf for awhile so get on it! This  morning we have leftover NW with a touch of small SW and clean conditions for some shoulder high waves. Tomorrow the low clouds and fog return along with the sea breeze. We should have some chest high NW left- so it will be rideable even though conditions start to detiorate. For Sunday, it's catch 22- drizzle and wind return but we do have a new head high NW arriving for SD/north OC and

around waist high for south OC. Long story short, we'll have waves this weekend

but the weather starts to fall apart. Water temps are still high 50's and the tides the next few days are around 5' at sunrise, -1' at 1pm, and 3' at sunset. Make sure to keep up to date on the swells and conditons at Twitter/North County Surf.

 

FORECAST:

Once we get through the junky conditions on Sunday/Monday, the NW backsdown Monday/Tuesday. Wednesday morning looks pretty small but conditions should be clean. By Wednesday afternoon we start to see yet another swell arrive- this time from a more westerly direction. Models show this one to be pretty good with overhead waves in most areas- kind of like the one we had earlier in the week. And conditions should be clean again by then. Not a bad stretch of waves we've been having- considering December was on the small and stormy side.

WEATHER:

Great 'summer' weather this past week will slowly transition to a more typical winter scenario- low clouds, drizzle, and a chance of showers. Today is our last nice day in the 70's as Saturday the sea breeze returns and the low clouds thicken. By Sunday we're cloudy witn drizzle and a chance of showers in the evening. So if you want to work on your tan, today's the day. Monday the light

showers continue and we'll only hit the high 50's at the beaches- about a 15 degree drop from today. Things start to clear out mid-week though and we'll have pleasant cool sunny weather by the 2nd half of next week.

BEST BET:

Considering it will be 70 today with light winds and a fun swell combo, make sure to leave work early today and get some lip bashes. It is Friday, right? Or if you want something a little bigger, wait for that new W swell to peak next Thursday with good weather returning.

NEWS OF THE WEEK:

Is it just me or has it been dry around here lately? After experiencing our 9th wettest December on record- with San Diego receiving 7" of rain and the OC getting 9", January has been a dud with just 1/4" of rain in SD and 3/4" of rain in the OC. Even though we may get showers on Sundaynight/Monday morning, it probably won't make a dent in our monthly totals. It's amazing because January historically is our wettest month. Even though December was abnormal with that

fire hose pointed at us, you'd expect January to get somewhere near our average of 2-3". As it stands now, we'll probably be a top 15 finish for one of the driest January's on record; which is finally on track with the La Nina predictions this winter. The Climate Prediction Center unfortunately came out with their extended precipitation forecasts recently and it looks like the dry weather is here to stay- they are predicting below normal rainfall the next 2 weeks, 1 month out, and 3 months out. Average monthly rainfall for January through April is around 6" and since we got bamboozled with pretty much no rain for January, I'm assuming we're only due for about 2" of rain the rest of the season. That would put SD at our average of around 10" for the season and the OC above average at 15" (normal is 13"). Can't complain- we only got about 6" total last season.

PIC OF THE WEEK:

Ahhh, another prime location for a Walmart Supercenter, condos, Hometown Buffet and seven Starbucks. Now if there was only some way I could get the Coastal Commission to let me monopolize that wave and tax those boat owners...

Keep Surfing,

Michael W. Glenn

Debonair

Starring in the Real Househusbands of San Diego

The New Mr. Pipeline

Welcome friend! Whoever you may be!

Just what is North County Surf? It’s a web surfing hub that helps you tap into everything the area has to offer. Even though the dissemination of information comes from the hub of North County San Diego, the North County Surf net is cast from the border to south Orange County. With the rise of the area’s popularity as a place to live, work and play, we wanted to create an on-line destination to help professionals take advantage of information that they didn’t have to search all day for on the web. Whether it be networking with local businesses, checking the surf, or just finding a deal, hopefully North County Surf can get you to where you want to go in life.  And if you need a quick surf or weather check, make sure to check out the North County Surf Twitter feed! http://twitter.com/NorthCountySurf