THE Surf Report

Fall's back!

SURF:
And just like that, fall's back!

Not much surf this past week- unless you were surfing Hurricane Simon in the OC. Had some shoulder high sets here earlier in the week (the Wedge had solid 15' sets which amazingly was 1/2 the size of Hurricane Marie) but that dwindled down here by Tuesday. Past few days have had cool air temps, low clouds in the nights/mornings, and super high tides killing the knee to waist high combo swell. Tomorrow is more of the same but fortunately we have a little waves coming this weekend.

Saturday the SW picks up from a little storm last week and we get waist high waves with chest high sets in far north county and the OC. We also have NW windswell picking up too so the beachbreaks should be fun even though both swells aren't that big.

The SW holds on Sunday and we get a reinforcing NW for shoulder high waves in town and head high waves in south SD county. Nothing big this weekend but it should be fun.

Water is holding at 70 degrees (5-7 degrees warmer than normal for mid-October) and tides the next few days are 2' at sunrise, up to 6.5' just before lunch, and down to -1' at sunset. Make sure to keep up to date on the waves/weather at Twitter/North County Surf.

FORECAST:
After a fun weekend of surf, the NW hangs around on Monday but then it gets pretty small again by mid-week. Lots of activity in the northern hemisphere but we'll be between storms.

Charts show another NW headed our way for next weekend with more chest to shoulder high waves so I'll keep an eye on that for ya'.

The tropics also have a small cluster of clouds off Mainland Mex today but nothing has formed yet and nothing will for a few days- so I'll keep an eye on that for ya'.

WEATHER:

Not really summer, not really winter, they call it 'fall'. The cool weather today will be replaced by slightly warmer weather this weekend and less low clouds and fog for temps in the mid-70's. Then fall kicks into gear the middle of next week with cooler temps again and more extensive night and morning low clouds and temps in the high 60's. Unfortunately, no rain in sight, but we are getting closer to November so we're due anytime now.

BEST BET:
Maybe Saturday with the little combo swell or Sunday as the NW picks up a little more. Or just take your sweet time and get some more NW next weekend. Gotta love fall.

NEWS OF THE WEEK:

I love the tides. Maddening actually. But I love them. It makes crap waves turn on and good waves go to crap. Wired Magazine recently reported that the wind and tides are major drivers of the ocean’s global circulation, moving its waters all over the planet and mixing up its temperature, salinity, and nutrients. But according to new research, there might be another crucial force in ocean circulation that scientists haven’t accounted for: the billions upon billions of small marine animals that live in its depths.

Throngs of tiny organisms called zooplankton inhabit the ocean—everything from microscopic protozoans to krill to jellyfish. Many of these animals live deep underwater during the day to avoid predators, and migrate en masse, sometimes hundreds of meters, to the surface to feed at night. Caltech fluid dynamicist John Dabiri thinks zooplankton’s daily collective movements may have a profound influence on ocean dynamics by mixing up its waters, and his new study, published in Physics of Fluids, backs up this theory.

To mimic zooplankton migration in the ocean, Dabiri and his research partner, Monica Wilhelmus, devised an automated laser robot that shoots moving blue light through a water tank filled with thousands of brine shrimp. The shrimp (the same creatures sold to curious kids as Sea Monkeys) followed the laser light as it swept from the bottom of the tank to the top, and as they swam, they kicked back water behind them.

Individually, a sea monkey’s kick doesn’t move much water, but as Dabiri discovered, their collective migration creates large eddies. In the ocean, this could potentially mix up the nutrients and salinity of warmer surface saltwater with cold brine from deeper depths. Dabiri thinks that when untold numbers of zooplankton migrate up and down the ocean’s water column every day, they may have an effect on circulation as substantial as the wind and tides by adding about a trillion watts of energy to the ocean system.

Many physical oceanographers are skeptical of this theory (called ‘biomixing’), particularly since zooplankton migration is much harder to measure in the real world than the wind and tides. “It’s hard to go from a lab experiment in a tank and extrapolate to the ocean,” said physical oceanographer André Visser of the Technical University of Denmark. “I’m not convinced that this is a credible mechanism in ocean mixing.”

But Dabiri thinks his lab experiments prove the physics of the phenomenon. “The ocean is much bigger than the tank in our lab, but the tank had only a few thousand of these organisms versus billions and billions of them in the ocean,” he said.

If zooplankton do, in fact, move ocean waters as Dabiri predicts, this might help scientists model climate change more precisely. The ocean is Earth’s largest carbon sink, soaking up more than a quarter of CO2 that human activity emits, and zooplankton may play a key role in that process. “We may need to rethink our models of the ocean,” he said. “Perhaps there are significant factors we’re missing right now.”

BEST OF THE BLOG:

Can't wait for the surf this weekend? Bored out of your wits with all this small surf and cool weather? Then head on over to the North County Surf Blog for a little 'extreme' sports action. Clips of Julian going big at Lowers, bombing hills with Arbor Skateboards outside of Mammoth, and visions of 20' snow drifts with Jeremy and Mikkel. Warning on the Arbor clip- close your eyes right around the 2 minute 28 second mark. All of that and more, plus an in depth THE Surf Report, in the blog below!
 
PIC OF THE WEEK:

I'm guessing I'll get a lot of flack today's Pic of the Week. Either you'll love it or hate it. Either you get it or you won't. If you don't get it, here's a primer: It's basically how Jeff Clark got started- surfing Maverick's for YEARS by himself. Just big cold bombs with no one around but him and the men in gray suits. Even named the spot after his dog. As far as this wave goes, I don't know the name of this 12' slab in the middle of nowhere but I'm guessing the guy who lives in the cabin up on the hill does.

Keep Surfing,

Michael W. Glenn
Strapping
Heisman Front Runner
Surfer Magazine Cover, January 1983