THE Surf Report

Messy, sloppy, junky, chaotic, disheveled, confused, and sometimes even raunchy.

SURF:
The ocean is in a state of disarray today but you already knew that by the sound of dumping rain last night. But if you do need an official surf report, it's head high+ from the NW and SW and the wind is blowing W at 10 and increasing later today. And that's the good part. Looks like the low pressure systems is right above us this morning and we'll have rain off and on until this afternoon and more wind and a chance of thunderstorms.

Basically the waters are dirty from the rain run off, the wind is going to continue blowing, and there surf is jumbled. Things clean up slightly tomorrow but it's still going to be junky. By Sunday high pressure starts to build and we get cleaner conditions and some lumpy head high+ NW windswell/groundswell. Long story short- wait until Sunday for anything resembling a surfable wave. Water temps are still 57 and tides the next few days are 6' at sunrise, down to -1' around 1pm, and just about 5' again at sunset. Make sure to keep up to date on the waves/weather at Twitter/North County Surf.

FORECAST:

Once things start to clean up on Sunday, we've got dying NW and clean conditions Monday for chest high surf with a touch of smaller SW. The weather stays clean and sunny next week but there's not much surf on tap. The Aleutians aren't aiming any NW our way and there's only background SW for some chest high surf in the OC.

There is a solid storm on the charts that's trying to form off New Zealand about a week out which would give us an overhead+ SW around the 22nd. But that's still a LOOOONG way off. In the near term, just look for small SW next week.

WEATHER:

North county San Diego really got walloped last night. Most spots in southern CA got 1/2" of rain while locations from Del Mar to Oceanside got the brunt with over 1". The main cold front has moved through but now we have the low pressure system right above us to deal with. Look for pockets of sun today followed by a stray dumping thunderstorm. Maybe even a waterspout if you're unlucky. Things try to clear up tomorrow afternoon and by Sunday it's sunny and cool around here. High pressure kicks in next week and by next weekend we may have temps in the 70's at the beaches again.

BEST BET:
Probably Sunday with leftover NW, some background SW, and clean conditions finally!

NEWS OF THE WEEK:

If' you've been reading THE Surf Report for the past 15 years or so (all you Rip Curl alumni know who you are), then you know my News of the Week has the same story twice a year: Yes it's finally here- Daylight Saving Time! Actually, it didn't seem that long ago that we set our clocks back one hour on the first Sunday of November. Didn't it seem like as kids, Daylight Saving Time only lasted a few months- not this crazy 8 month stretch we embrace now? I guess during the 1973 oil embargo (yes, gas was out of control back then too), the U.S. Congress extended Daylight Saving Time to 8 months, rather than the normal six months. During that time, the U.S. Department of Transportation found that observing Daylight Saving Time in March and April saved the equivalent in energy of 10,000 barrels of oil each day - a total of 600,000 barrels in each of those two years. Likewise, in 1986, Daylight Saving Time moved from the last Sunday in April to the first Sunday in April. No change was made to the ending date of the last Sunday in October. Adding the entire month of April to Daylight Saving Time is estimated to save the U.S. about 300,000 barrels of oil each year. And then finally, beginning in 2007, Daylight Saving Time commenced on the second Sunday in March and ended on the first Sunday in November, thereby saving even more oil. And what does that mean for all of us? Higher gas prices! I don't get it. Long story short, remember to set your clocks forward 1 hour when you go to bed this Saturday. You'll finally be able to surf after work now until 7pm. That's all I care about. Screw the whole oil saving thing. I'm still paying $4 at the pump unfortunately. Oh- and forget about dawn patrolling it and beating everyone to the surf as the sun will now come up at 7am. Somehow I'll figure out a way to blame high gas prices on that too.

BEST OF THE BLOG:

Considering it's dumping snow all over Cali today, I thought it was about time to post some snowboard deals on the North County Surf blog. You really didn't think you were going to surf in that stormy dirty ocean this weekend, did you? Check out the low snow prices on the blog and hit the mountains this weekend. 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:

Just another random point in California. Eureka!

Keep Surfing,

Michael W. Glenn
Herculean
Learned to Swim at Loch Ness
Had a Cyclone Named After Me