THE Surf Report 9/2/11

Bombs away.

SURF:

Not a bad week for swell. The weather was a little cool early on but the clouds broke and the ‘Chopes’ SW swell reared it’s ugly head the 2^nd half of this week. Lots of fun if you could find a place with a corner- that forecasted NW was smaller than hoped for and the SW rumbled down the beach in one big wall from Torrey Pines to Seal Beach. It peaked yesterday with 25’ sets at the Wedge, (there were even 2-3’ surges in Avalon Harbor on Catalina Island yesterday- amazing when you think that the harbor faces NE- opposite of the SW swell- and the island is like one big 21 mile break wall), but we still have plenty of overhead sets today.

Look for inconsistent overhead+ waves in north SD today with sets a few feet overhead in the OC. We also have a smaller waist high NW in the water but the SW is so big, the NW isn’t really helping peak up the SW lines. The current SW swell brewed in the southern hemisphere for a couple of a couple days- plus it had some size- so we’ll be left with fun head high+ waves on Saturday too. Sunday should be head high in SD with slightly bigger sets in the OC. And for the Labor Day we should have some head high sets still. Not a bad swell if I do say so myself.  Water temps and air temps are forecasted to be nice this weekend too so it should be a fun holiday. The beachbreaks will even have some fun lines as the sandbars might be able to handle the slightly diminishing SW this weekend. Water temps look like they’ve dropped slightly due to all the churned up water- somewhere in the 67 degree range and the tides the next few days are 1’ at sunrise, 6’ at 1pm, and back to 1’ at sunset. Make sure to keep up to date on the swells and conditions at Twitter/North County Surf.  

FORECAST:

Hopefully you’ll be surfed out this weekend because there isn’t much on tap the middle of next week- just some background waist high SW with chest high sets. Not much NW windswell is forecasted either. There are a couple smaller storms brewing though on the charts- one in the southern hemisphere again and one early one up here in the Aleutians (fall is just 21 days away you know). Both aren’t big but we may get chest high+ surf from them next weekend.

WEATHER:

Nice weather the past week but not really a blazing late summer we’ve all come to love and expect this time of year. We do though have high pressure building today and we should get seasonal temperatures in the high 70’s at the beaches this weekend along with a little more humidity and less clouds/fog in the mornings. Should be a good weekend to get in the surf and stuff your lady friend in a bikini. Models show the high pressure backing off slightly towards the middle of next week for slightly cooler temps and the return of more extensive night and morning low clouds. Still nice though- just not hot September weather. High pressure returns yet again the second half of next week for more warm seasonal late summer temperatures.

BEST BET:

Looks like today is the day- great weather, plenty of SW still, and just a touch of NW. Saturday should be fun too- albeit smaller- and the weekend crowds will be maddening. In a nutshell it looks like good surf/good weather this weekend, small surf/cooler weather the middle of next week, and back to good surf/good weather next weekend.  

NEWS OF THE WEEK:

The terms ‘May Gray’ and ‘June Gloom’ are synonymous with cool/cloudy/foggy Southern California summers and they tend to be related to another term- the ‘Catalina Eddy’ (a.k.a. coastal eddy). So why during our summers does the coast get socked in with low clouds and fog while just 5 miles inland it can be sunny and 80 degrees? The eddy tends to form when upper level large-scale high pressure flows off Point Conception (i.e. the northwest winds that create our short period summer windswells) and interacts with the complex topography of the Southern California coastline. As a result, a counter clockwise circulating low pressure area forms with its center in the vicinity of Catalina Island. Amazingly, since Catalina tends to be in the center of this low pressure system, the island may have clear weather since it’s in the ‘eye of the hurricane’. This low pressure formation develops south winds along our coast line and a deepening of the low clouds and fog marine layer (i.e. the June Gloom) with clouds as thick as 5,000 feet which may result in drizzle or even light rain- in the middle of summer no less. We’re most likely to see the Catalina Eddy between April and September (hence it’s not just May Gray or June Gloom as evident by the cool cloudy weather we had in late August) with a peak in June. Depending on the strength of the eddy, low clouds and fog may hug the coast all day, resulting in a beach experience that feels more like January rather than July.

BEST OF THE BLOG:

If you knew what was good for you, then you would have checked out the North County Surf blog this week. ‘Cause if you didn’t, you probably were swimming in sewage the past few days. Where you ask?! Check out the blog! Also marvel upon Julian’s aerial antics last week at Lowers. Get a mid-week surf check and forecast. And find out if the Dream Tour is going to get waves in NYC next week.  Check it out in the blog below!

PIC OF THE WEEK:

With all the hype surrounding Teahupoo the past few days, I thought I should post a pic of something that I would like to surf- kind of like Baby Chopes. Not sure where it is, but you can keep the 25’ death slabs in Tahiti- give me 5’ draining barrels! For more phenomenal pics, check out the boys at Tracks Mag in Oz.

Keep Surfing,

Michael W. Glenn

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