THE Surf Report

March Madness.

SURF:
Not much surf this past week. Just some little SW/NW background swells but we started to see the signs of some new NW and SW last night.

This morning we have some shoulder high sets from a short period NW swell while the SW continues to build. The OC and south SD have some head high sets and most spots are peaky due to the combo swells. Be aware though of the S wind from the fog. For the weekend, looks like we have more good surf on tap as the NW starts to back off tomorrow but the SW is reinforced by a solid storm we've been watching this past week. Spots around town will have head high sets while the OC will have overhead sets. As the NW winds down tomorrow, spots in south SD will be a little smaller. Still plenty of fun waves though. Sunday morning looks to be about the same. Long story short- a good weekend for surf.

Water temps are inching up to 58 and tides are pretty defined the next few days- about 5' at sunrise, 0' at lunch, and back up to 4' at sunset. Make sure to keep up to date on the waves/weather at Twitter/North County Surf. 

FORECAST:

After a good weekend of surf, the ocean takes a little breather as there are no major SW or NW swells headed our way. We may get a little bump from the NW towards the end of next week but nothing exciting.

As far as the southern hemisphere goes, the charts looked pretty dead the past few days but as of this morning, they're showing another good storm forming around the 27th. If that holds up, we should get good head high surf again towards April 3rd.

WEATHER:

Models can't agree 100% on the short term but we should have some nice weather this weekend. Just depends on what the low clouds will do in the mornings and evenings and if there's a little morning sickness with S wind from the fog. Nothing too thick but will it clear up early or hang around until lunch? That's the question pretty much all the way until next Thursday with temps in the mid-60's. Charts then show the jet stream taking a dip our way and sending a storm to our region by Friday. We need it since we're only around 1/2 our normal rainfall right now.

BEST BET:
Saturday is the day. No work, peaking NW windswell with SW groundswell, and nice weather. Oh lordy. 

NEWS OF THE WEEK:

There's been a lot of talk lately about the discovery of the Higgs boson or the 'God Particle' and how it's the building block of the universe. But in our surf universe, I could care less. I want to get down to the nitty gritty and discuss what the building block of surf is. Sure storms make surf, but what is the building block of a storm? Wind of course. But what makes wind? Wind is caused by differences in atmospheric pressure created, in large part, by the unequal heating of the earth's surface by the sun. Air moves from a region of higher pressure to one of lower pressure and this movement is wind. Any difference in pressure will cause wind, but the greater the difference the stronger the wind. The direction that wind takes is influenced by the rotation of the earth. On a non-rotating earth wind would move in a straight path from a high- to a low-pressure area. It is deflected from this path—to the right in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern—by the turning of the earth on its axis. Local winds—those that affect a comparatively small area—are often caused by heat transferred by convection. Direct radiation from the sun does little to heat the air. It is warmed chiefly by heat radiated from the earth. Intense local heating of the land causes air directly above to become greatly heated and to expand. As a result, some of the air aloft flows away, lowering the pressure over the heated area and increasing the pressure around it. The cooler, heavier air near the earth then flows to the heated area. In mountainous areas, winds tend to blow uphill during the day because the mountainside is heated more than the valley below it. At night, when the mountainside cools, the wind blows downhill. In summer, breezes tend to blow from oceans or large lakes to the warmer land during the day. They blow from the land at night- offshore- when the land cools. That's why the dawn patrols are so darn good.

BEST OF THE BLOG:

The pros have been busy 'working' this past month while surfing the Gold Coast contest and now prepping for the Bells event. So we're left with a smorgasbord of videos on the web the past few weeks as they don't have 'time' to make a proper clip as they 'work'. Videos like Reef's new film starring Mick Fanning, Craig Anderson surfing some dreamy little beach break barrels, and a tune up contest at Margaret River. Just enough to whet anyone's appetite for our upcoming surf this weekend. Check out the footage on the North County Surf blog. 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:

There are so many good places to surf in Indo. And it seems like new places are found every year. Wasn't G-Land the place to go in the not too distant past? Then Padang, then Lance's Right, Macaroni's, and countless more. Now Keramas is the flavor of the month. Well today's Pic of the Week is another Indo barrel that's been forgotten about. Someone lucky is going to stumble upon it again in the near future.

Keep Surfing,

Michael W. Glenn
Captain
Perfect Bracket
Collaborating on a new Film With Bruce Brown and Runman