THE Surf Report- Early Edition

Make it stop.

SURF:
Lots of surf, sunshine, and warm water makes me tired. My arms are like noodles. It's a good problem to have I guess. Enough about me though.

Fun surf the past few days from a S groundswell and a S hurricane swell compliments of Eugene gave most areas around town shoulder high waves, head high in north county, and well overhead in the OC. Both swells peaked today and for Friday we just have leftover S groundswell for chest high sets- with head high waves in the OC still. Saturday is slightly smaller and by Sunday we just have waist high+ S swell. Water temps if you haven't noticed have been in the mid-70's the past few days but a bout of WNW wind today may drop it slightly this weekend to the high 60's. Still pleasant regardless.

Tides the next few days are 1' at sunrise, up to 4' mid-afternoon, and down to 2' at sunset.

FORECAST:
Once the small surf runs it's course this weekend, we have a couple more S and SW swells lined up for next week thankfully.

Monday morning starts off in the waist high range and then by the afternoon we see a couple bumps from the S. By Tuesday we have chest high+ surf.

Wednesday a new SW swell fills in and we're back to shoulder high sets. That lasts into Friday morning. Next weekend and the 3rd week of July look pretty small unless a hurricane decides to form. Speaking of hurricanes, Fernanda is churning in-between Baja and Hawaii tonight and unfortunately moving due W towards Hawaii- so we won't see any real surf from it. Make sure to keep up to date on the waves & weather at Twitter/North County Surf.

WEATHER:

Pleasant weather this past week- low clouds/fog in the mornings, burning off around 10 AM, followed by sun and temps in the mid to high 70's. Along with the water temps in the low 70's, trunks is all you need (contrary to The Beatles who said Love Is All You Need- I disagree). Look for more of the same next week. Summer is in full swing. Take advantage of it!

BEST BET:
Tomorrow with leftover S swell or next Wednesday/Thursday with good SW swell.

NEWS OF THE WEEK:

All the Great White sightings off our coast has made me a little uneasy this year. Good news is that now we might know why they're here. Bad news is that they may be here to stay. Kind of like the tourists from Arizona coming to visit for the summer and not going home. Yikes. SFGATE reported this week that researchers with the California State Long Beach Shark Lab have discovered several hotspots for shark activity off the Southern California coast, areas that they're calling "nurseries" for young great whites. Oh great.

Juvenile great white sharks congregate near Ventura, Oxnard, Santa Monica Bay, Huntington Beach and Dana Point in the summer months, before their annual migration south for the winter, according to the Ventura County Star.

Chris Lowe, a professor of marine biology at CSU Long Beach and director of the school's shark lab, started tagging juvenile sharks about 10 years ago and found that many of them would return back to the same handful of hot spots year after year. These areas may be safer for the young great whites, as they are sheltered from predators and have an abundance of easy prey.

"The sharks that we tag tend to hang out mainly at those hot spot areas during their first few summers," he told the Star.

When the sharks return to Southern California, they don't always go back to the same hotspot, the newspaper reports. Lowe and his team are continuing their research and working to find out why the juvenile sharks return to the areas they do.

Shark sightings — and attacks — have been on the rise in recent months. The city of Santa Cruz instituted a four-day ban on entering a three-mile stretch of water Tuesday after a great white shark attacked a kayaker.

Lowe told SFGATE in May that the rise in shark sightings can be attributed in part to increased environmental protections. Populations of other marine animals, like otters and sea lions, have been thriving, which has given sharks more prey to feed on. That could in turn be contributing to a growth in the shark population.

For those worried about shark attacks, Lowe reminds people that the ocean is sharks' natural home. "We have unfettered access to the ocean," he said. "Humans have forgotten how to share habitats with wild animals, and they have to be re-educated."

So to re-cap: Basically don't surf anywhere in the following counties: Ventura, LA, and Orange unless you want to have a meeting with the men in the grey suits.

PIC OF THE WEEK:

The delicious coast. Or as the locals call it- Costa Rica.

Keep Surfing,

Michael W. Glenn
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