THE Surf Report- Early Edition

In the immortal words of Judge Smails, "Well... we're waiting..."

SURF:
No sign of the El Nino winter yet. But I don't care. (In the immortal words of Charlie Brown, "Don't you know sarcasm when you hear it?")

Lots of good waves though this past week if you could figure out the tides. Today we had a cold front move through and it whipped the ocean into a frenzy. If you're reading this at 10 o'clock tonight you're probably cursing the N winds. But if you're reading this at 7 AM on Friday morning, you're probably praising the offshore NE winds as high pressure built in behind the cold front. Friday morning should have leftover SW swell and shorter interval NW for peaky head high+ conditions at the beach breaks, offshore winds, and sunny skies. BEWARE THE WATER TEMPS! Depending on how long the offshores blow, our water temps may drop into the mid to high 60's. The NW drops on Saturday as the SW holds for chest high+ waves and Sunday we're down to waist to chest high surf mainly from the SW.

Tides the next few days are 3' at sunrise (7 AM), up to 6' at lunch, and down to 0' at sunset (6 PM).

FORECAST:

The NW will be gone by Monday but as luck would have it, increases again on Tuesday for overhead surf. But alas it's from another cold front which will bring junky conditions through Wednesday. After that things clean up but the surf goes flat.

Models show a little storm off New Zealand trying to take shape in a few days which may give us waist high SW (and the OC chest high sets) next weekend but that's about it.

No El Nino in sight unfortunately.

WEATHER:

The forecasted rain this week never materialized but the sunsets sure were nice. We have great weather this weekend for beach temps near 80. Another cold front starts to make it's way down the state early in the week and the clouds increase by Monday. Tuesday the models show another chance of showers appearing and rolling into Wednesday. At this point I'll take anything. High pressure sets up the 2nd half of next week for nice conditions and temps in the low 70's.  Make sure to keep up to date on the waves/weather at Twitter/North County Surf.
 
BEST BET:
Friday morning! Leftover NW and holding SW for good surf. Oh- and offshores! Hopefully you're not reading this mid-day Friday and missed it...

NEWS OF THE WEEK:

Random facts (that may only interest me):

-On this day in history 1974: A tornado touched down in Encinitas. Four inches of snow fell on Palomar Mountain, the greatest daily snowfall on record for October.

-On this day in history 1971: It was 10° in Big Bear Lake, the lowest temperature on record for October. It was 11° in Idyllwild and 18° on Palomar Mountain, each the lowest temperature on record for October.

-On this day in history 1965: A very long heat wave that began on 10/20 ended on this day. A peak temperature of 104° was reached at San Diego on 10/22 and 100° in Los Angeles. LA had ten consecutive days with afternoon highs reaching at least 90°.

-The oceans cover 71% (and rising) of the Earth's surface and contain 97% of the Earth's water. Less than 1% is fresh water, and 2-3% is contained in glaciers and ice caps (and is decreasing).

-The highest tides in the world are at the Bay of Fundy, which separates New Brunswick from Nova Scotia. At some times of the year the difference between high and low tide is over 50', about the size of my first ever wave at Mav's.

-Sharks bite roughly 70 people each year worldwide, with perhaps 6-10 fatalities, according to data compiled in the International Shark Attack File (ISAF). Although shark bites get a lot of attention, this is far less than the number of people injured each year by elephants, bees, crocodiles, lightning or many other natural dangers. On the other side of the ledger, we kill somewhere between 20-100 million sharks every year through fishing activities.

-Almost any shark 6' or longer is a potential danger, but three species have been identified repeatedly in fatal bites: great whites, tigers, and bull sharks. All three are found worldwide, reach large sizes and eat large prey such as marine mammals or sea turtles. More bites on swimmers, free divers, scuba divers, surfers and boats have been reported for the great white shark than for any other species. However, some 80% of all shark bites probably occur in the tropics and subtropics, where other shark species dominate and great white sharks are relatively rare. (On a side note, I'll be surfing in Pacifica, CA next month where a cluster of 20 great whites in lengths of 10-18' were sighted just 100 yards offshore a couple days ago. So I have that going for me).

PIC OF THE WEEK:

Came across this story last week on The Surfer's Journal about this shot photographer Michael Kew took. Long story short, while camping on a bluff above the northern Sonoma County coast in February 2006, Michael woke up to to large unruly surf on the beach below. Seems as though there was a rivermouth that was damned up by a sand berm at the ocean's edge. The surf was huge and because of the high tide and severe drop off along the shoreline, sets were slamming full force into the berm and spilling into the river behind it. As the whitewater surged into the river, it created a rogue wave. This chest high wave peeled flawlessly for dozens of yards in the river while the ocean on the other side of the berm was out of control. Imagine driving down the coast that day, looking for a wave to surf, but being skunked due to the 20' closeouts (along with the deterrent of 50 degree water) only to find this gem in the river with no one out. As long as the berm held to keep the 25' great whites out of the river, I'd paddle out!

Keep Surfing,

Michael W. Glenn
Immortal
I Can't Drive 55
Some Weird Force Is Preventing Me From Strapping My Wave Jet To The Top Of My Woodie