THE Surf Report- Early Edition

I’m excited for winter.

SURF:
I’m excited for winter. The big surf, the storms, finding parking at the beach, sessions in which you’re the only person out, river mouth sandbars coming to life, and on and on and on. In the meantime though, we have to contend with November.

Don’t get me wrong- we had some fun surf the past couple weeks-  but we’re still missing some solid surf. Can’t wait to shelve the 5’10” and pull out the 6’10”. For this weekend, we just have background NW/SW  for waist high waves and best combo spots will have inconsistent chest high sets. Please note- we also have a weak cold front moving by to the N tomorrow and we may have some NW winds in the afternoon. By Saturday and Sunday though, winds should back to normal.

Water temps are in the low 60’s and tides this weekend are pretty simple; about 6’ in the morning and almost -1’ late in the afternoon.

FORECAST:
Mainly small NW/SW early next week for waist high+ surf and clean conditions.

Models show a little storm in the Aleutians taking shape this weekend which would give us waist high+ NW next Wednesday.

We also had a little storm off Antarctica yesterday which is also sending us waist high SW for Thanksgiving.

And after that, forecast charts show another small NW arriving next Friday for chest high sets.

And if the charts are correct, we have more chest high NW arriving around the 27th. Long story short, little swells off and on the next 10 days. So keep riding the 5’10”, not the 6’10”

WEATHER:

Not a whole lot going on out there. As mentioned above, a weak cold front is coming through Northern California tonight which may bring a sprinkle here on Friday. NW winds may pick up slightly too. Once that rolls through, sunny skies prevail for temps in the low 70’s this weekend then high pressure sets up shop early next week and temps towards Thanksgiving could be 80 at the beach and light offshores. Typical for fall, right? If anything changes between now and then, make sure to keep up to date on the waves and weather at Twitter/North County Surf. 

BEST BET:
Thanksgiving weekend with small but fun combo surf and good weather.

NEWS OF THE WEEK:

You might have read a few years back that there used to be a GIGANTIC shark in prehistoric times called the Megalodon. Large Great White Sharks are 20’. Megalodons were 60’. Holy crap. But thankfully, that was millions of years ago and we don’t have to deal with prehistoric sharks anymore, just Great Whites. Not so fast. Scientists in Europe discovered a “living fossil” called the Frilled Shark (‘living fossil’ because evidence of its existence dates back to at least 80 million years ago). This summer, researchers found one alive and thriving off the coast of Portugal, uncovering more clues about the resilience of this ancient sea creature. I’ll let Newsweek take it from here:

The researchers who discovered the shark off the Algarve coast were working on a European Union project in the area, the BBC reported. The goal of the project was to "minimize unwanted catches in commercial fishing," the researchers told SIC Noticisas TV, as the BBC noted, but the team unknowingly unearthed one of the rarest and most ancient animals on the planet.

Scientists believe the frilled shark has remained the same, both inside and out, since the Cretaceous Period, when the Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops still roamed the planet. The creature, known by scientists as Chlamydoselachus anguineus, is incredibly simple and unevolved, most likely due to the lack of nutrients found in its deep-sea dwellings. A Japanese study of the shark found in Suruga Bay, Japan, revealed that its diet is 61 percent cephalopods—the class to which squids and octopus belong.

This deep-sea dweller is usually found between 390 and 4,200 feet below the surface, which is why it’s rarely seen and wasn’t even discovered before the 19th century (despite being around long before humans).

The shark caught this summer measured around 5 feet in length, but at their longest, they can be around 6-and-a-half feet, IFL Science reported.  Another study of a Suruga Bay inhabitant showed that frilled sharks may also have the longest gestation period of any living creature, 42 months.

Its name may sound unfitting for a beast that swims the deep seas, but as Mental Floss explained, the frilled shark is named after its gills. Pretty much all other sharks have separate gills, but the frilled shark’s first pair of gills stretch all the way across its throat. In total, the shark has six pairs of gills that have “frilly” edges.

The shark also has a unique mouth shape. Its jaw has more than 300 teeth neatly lined in 25 rows that, according to professor Margarida Castro of the University of the Algarve, are specifically designed to help it “to trap squid, fish and other sharks in sudden lunges,” The Portugal News reported. It’s lined with spines called dermal denticles that, combined with the teeth, give the mouth an all-around frightening look.

It’s unlikely you will ever come face-to-face with a living frilled shark. But if you do, it’s safe to say: Keep as far away as you can, and whatever you do, try to avoid its ferociously awesome jaw.

PIC OF THE WEEK:

When the craft beer craze took of a few years ago, the term ‘growler’ was in everyone’s vocabulary. For us surfers on the other hand, that word has been around since the 50’s, as evident by Shark Island here.

Keep Surfing,

Michael W. Glenn
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