Embrace The Cold
SURF:
If having cold, foggy, breezy days means there's surf, then I'm all for it. Fun surf this week with overcast conditions was met with extreme tide swings.
There were waves to be found- if you knew when and where to look.
For the weekend, I'll be turning on the Emergency Boardriding System as we have new NW filling in tonight along with peaking SW swell. Look for head high waves on Friday with overhead sets at the best spots in N County SD and the OC. S County SD will have slightly bigger sets due to the dominant NW. For Saturday, it's down a touch but still fun waves.
Sunday morning starts off slow, but still fun with chest high combo surf, and then a new NW moves in late in the day (as well as SW reinforcements) for more head high+ surf. All in all a good weekend of waves. And here's the tides, sun, and water temps for the next few days:
- Sunrise and sunset- don't forget Daylight Saving Time ends Saturday night:
- Friday/Saturday:
- 7:12 AM sunrise
- 5:52 PM sunset
- Sunday:
- 6:12 AM sunrise
- 4:52 PM sunset
- Water temps are still in the low 60's (and probably not getting warmer until April FYI).
- And here are the crazy tides this weekend:
- 4' at sunrise
- 6.5' mid-morning
- down to -1' at sunset
FORECAST:
Firing surf over the weekend spills into Monday with more head high+ combo swell.
Tuesday is smaller but still fun with chest high sets then we see more NW move in on Wednesday for shoulder high sets.
And not to confuse things... forecast charts show a couple hurricanes possibly forming off Mainland Mexico this weekend. We are in November you know- not July- so take it with a grain of salt. But if we were to see any surf from 1 or the other, that may be around Wednesday with the new NW too.
On that note... after that, models show yet more NW moving in for next weekend for head high sets? Make sure that fullsuit dries out between sessions!
WEATHER:
Big fan of fog? You're in luck. Looks like we have more of it through the foreseeable future. Sun should peak through on Friday, then may be harder to break through for the weekend. We have a weak cold front moving by to the N on Tuesday and we could see some light showers down here. After that, models hint at nicer weather the 2nd half of next week with possible Santa Ana conditions next weekend. If anything changes between now and then, make sure to follow North County Surf on Twitter!
BEST BET:
Where do I start? Friday or Monday with solid combo swell. Or cleaner conditions Wednesday with more smaller NW (and possibly a touch of hurricane S)?
NEWS OF THE WEEK:
If you haven't noticed in the past decade or so, Southern California’s beaches are running out of sand. And they'll continue to shrink unless land use allows more sediment to flow downstream. That's according to Brett Sanders, a professor of civil and environmental engineering, urban planning and public policy at UC Irvine. He wrote a recent article in the LA Times highlighting the plight surfers and beachgoers see on a daily basis. Here's what he had to say:
Do you enjoy a walk on the sand? Throwing down your beach towel and an umbrella to lose yourself for a few hours? Or a family barbecue with the kids building sandcastles? Enjoy it while you can. Southern California’s sandy beaches are under duress and need our help. That became impossible to ignore this September when the beach at San Clemente thinned so much that waves crashed over the rail tracks, making that line impassable. Service between Los Angeles and San Diego was suspended for a week until repairs were completed. Beaches south of Dana Point, from Doheny through San Onofre, are especially at risk.
So far this isn’t primarily about climate change or rising sea levels. It’s about how local development and land use have altered natural processes that would have otherwise replenished the beaches. Sand on beaches is a lot like money in a bank account. It flows in and out, and the balance needs to stay in positive territory to avoid a calamity of problems. The sand deposits flow in from two natural processes: river inputs and cliff erosion. One human process contributes as well: beach nourishment, in which sand from one location is moved to another by machinery.
Sand flows out under the force of waves, which creates rivers of sand along the coast that move material into sheltered areas such as coves, and eventually offshore into deep water. Once the sand is gone, our problems escalate: loss of access for millions of people and damage to property, infrastructure, fragile coastal wetlands and a $26.5-billion recreation and tourism economy. So far with beach loss in Southern California, it’s not that our expenditures have increased, but that our revenue is down. Development across the region has reduced the supply of sediment — in part through hardening of the land surface, which reduces the crucial erosion needed to create new sand, and in part through sediment capture systems used for flood control. Climate change does come into play, though: Decades of drought have limited the number of big storms, which disproportionately account for the transport of sand to the coast.
Erosion impacts would have been felt sooner were it not for the widening of beaches across Southern California in the middle of the last century. The construction of ports, harbors and marinas in the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s dug out vast spoils from natural marshlands and sheltered areas, and the riches were placed along the coast. The construction of Dana Point Harbor in the 1960s and the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in the 1960s and ’70s contributed to beach widening from Doheny through San Onofre beaches — where beach sand is now vanishing.
Do you enjoy a walk on the sand? Throwing down your beach towel and an umbrella to lose yourself for a few hours? Or a family barbecue with the kids building sandcastles? Enjoy it while you can. Southern California’s sandy beaches are under duress and need our help. That became impossible to ignore this September when the beach at San Clemente thinned so much that waves crashed over the rail tracks, making that line impassable. Service between Los Angeles and San Diego was suspended for a week until repairs were completed. Beaches south of Dana Point, from Doheny through San Onofre, are especially at risk.
So far this isn’t primarily about climate change or rising sea levels. It’s about how local development and land use have altered natural processes that would have otherwise replenished the beaches. Sand on beaches is a lot like money in a bank account. It flows in and out, and the balance needs to stay in positive territory to avoid a calamity of problems. The sand deposits flow in from two natural processes: river inputs and cliff erosion. One human process contributes as well: beach nourishment, in which sand from one location is moved to another by machinery.
Sand flows out under the force of waves, which creates rivers of sand along the coast that move material into sheltered areas such as coves, and eventually offshore into deep water. Once the sand is gone, our problems escalate: loss of access for millions of people and damage to property, infrastructure, fragile coastal wetlands and a $26.5-billion recreation and tourism economy. So far with beach loss in Southern California, it’s not that our expenditures have increased, but that our revenue is down. Development across the region has reduced the supply of sediment — in part through hardening of the land surface, which reduces the crucial erosion needed to create new sand, and in part through sediment capture systems used for flood control. Climate change does come into play, though: Decades of drought have limited the number of big storms, which disproportionately account for the transport of sand to the coast.
Erosion impacts would have been felt sooner were it not for the widening of beaches across Southern California in the middle of the last century. The construction of ports, harbors and marinas in the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s dug out vast spoils from natural marshlands and sheltered areas, and the riches were placed along the coast. The construction of Dana Point Harbor in the 1960s and the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in the 1960s and ’70s contributed to beach widening from Doheny through San Onofre beaches — where beach sand is now vanishing.
Coping will be costly, with major undertakings such as rerouting critical infrastructure and maintaining public access to beaches. Looking forward, climate change could make beach loss much, much worse, depending on how high we drive future sea levels with greenhouse gas emissions, global warming and polar ice melt. Curbing greenhouse gas emissions could still equate to several feet less of future sea level rise through 2100, and that would offer Californians many more days on the beach with family and friends and a far lower price tag for infrastructure adaptation.
Restoring sediment supplies will be crucial as well. Southern California has several options to do this:
- We can retool our flood channels and dams to deliver more sediment to the coast rather than capturing it upstream.
- We can ensure that armoring projects intended to prevent shoreline retreat account for diminished supply of sediment — and make sure those projects do not create barriers to public access.
- We can streamline permitting so local governments can more easily experiment and innovate with dredging and sediment placement, as well as using natural infrastructure such as vegetated dunes so beaches rise with sea level.
- The state and the region can more aggressively pursue federal funding for shoreline stabilization.
- We can collect data and build modeling systems that give us the understanding needed to manage these coastal systems better, avoiding the worst outcomes, sustaining our ecosystems and maximizing the delivery of benefits we’ve enjoyed for decades.
Just as no one event wiped out the beaches, no single solution will renew them in a day. Long-term thinking is essential: The waves will keep washing away sand for as long as the wind blows over the oceans. If we help it, nature will carry sand to the beaches to replenish them.
PIC OF THE WEEK:
In case you're not looking for a white Christmas but something more tropical, there's always points down south to spend the holidays. Nothing wrong with opening presents in boardies.
Keep Surfing,
Michael W. Glenn
Comprehensive
Just Bought A Windowless House From Charlie Munger
Former 90's Surf Movie Star
Michael W. Glenn
Comprehensive
Just Bought A Windowless House From Charlie Munger
Former 90's Surf Movie Star
