More excitement under the water lately than on top of it...
SURF:
Had a little SW earlier in the week for chest high waves and the weather was off and on with the clouds sometimes lingering into the afternoons at the beaches.
FORECAST:
After a slow weekend, it stays slow through the first part of the week. We had some activity a few days ago from the southern hemisphere which will send a fun SW our way late Wednesday. Look for Thursday/Friday to have chest high+ sets in far north county SD and head high sets in the OC. Maybe even some 'tropical' weather too. Looking forward to it.
WEATHER:
The low clouds were hanging around at the beaches earlier in the week but yesterday they finally cleared out early and we had a great beach day. Looks like we have a carbon copy of the great weather through the weekend. Maybe a little low clouds early and late but they should burn off mid-morning with temps in the mid-70's. By Monday the thunderstorms start to pop up in the mountains and deserts and by mid-week there may be some 'tropical' monsoon clouds overhead for the beaches too. That scenario may also keep the low clouds/fog to a minimum in the mornings. Nothing like sunny skies at 5 AM!
BEST BET:
Kind of easy to pick this one- next Thursday/Friday since it's the only swell on the radar! And some 'tropical' weather too. I wonder if it's going to be crowded at the US Open in Huntington Beach...
NEWS OF THE WEEK:
A couple times this past year, I've been out surfing and smelled a strong gas smell in the line-up (no flatulence jokes please- this is serious). It smelled like a tanker had leaked fuel into the line-up. As reported by nbcnews.com this week, the mystery seems to have been solved: While mapping the sea floor off San Diego, researchers found something odd: a sea floor mound about the height of a two-story building and the size of a city block. Further investigation found evidence the formation was caused by methane leaking out of the sea floor, which would make it the first so-called "methane seep" in San Diego County, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego announced Wednesday. The Scripps researchers took samples from 3,400 feet below the surface and bought up strange worms and clams that likely live off symbiotic bacteria that break down the clear, flammable gas. Such sites are important oases of life on the dark sea floor, with the methane-eating bacteria at the base of a rich and productive community that helps sustain the surrounding deep-sea ecosystem. "These chemosynthetic ecosystems are considered 'hot spots' of life on the sea floor in an otherwise desert-like landscape," said expedition member Alexis Pasulka, a Scripps biological oceanography graduate student, in a statement. "New forms of life are continuously being discovered in these environments." Organisms collected from the newly discovered site include thread-like tubeworms called siboglinids and several clams. Siboglinids lack a mouth and digestive system and gain nutrition from a symbiotic relationship with bacteria living inside them, while many clams at seeps get some of their food from sulfide-loving bacteria living on their gills. The scientists found the site 20 miles west of Del Mar (there go property values). It's centered on a fault zone known as the San Diego Trough Fault zone. Methane, or natural gas, exists in the Earth's crust under the sea floor along many of the world's continental margins. Faults can provide a pathway for methane to "seep" upward toward the sea floor. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, and researchers don't yet fully understand the magnitude to which seeping methane in the ocean contributes additional carbon to the atmosphere. On many continental margins, so-called frozen methane hydrates could represent a future energy source. Along the West Coast, methane seeps are known to exist off Oregon, California (near Eureka, Monterey Bay, Point Conception and Santa Monica), in the Gulf of California and off Costa Rica. The researchers will return to the site in December to study it further. Just another reason to stay out of the water in San Diego county. Need more reasons? Read below...
BEST OF THE BLOG:
Summer is my favorite time of the year for a million reasons- warm water, bikinis on the beach, surfing early and surfing late, and 999,997 other reasons. But there's a lot of annoying things too- no parking, tourists in the shorebreak, sunburns, and recently swarms of jellyfish, great whites, and orcas- and that's just the month of July. Get the scoop at the North County Surf blog (before it's too late). And of course a mid-week Surf Check and an in depth THE Surf Report. All of that and more in the blog below!
PIC OF THE WEEK:
It's amazing how many good waves around the globe go unridden. Like this set up for instance. There's a couple waves to choose from actually- the hollow slab at the top of the point or maybe you prefer a long feathering wall to throw some tail whips. Or maybe surf the slab for an hour then the walls the next hour?! Regardless, no one's out, there's plenty of surf, and if you're 'desperate', you probably could find something rideable on the point up the beach. Happy hunting!
Keep Surfing,
Michael W. Glenn
Adored By Millions
More Phineas Than Ferb
Olympic Gold Medalist, Surfing, 2016
