THE Surf Report

 

Welcome To Octobuary!

SURF:

Classic fall conditions today- combo swell, offshore winds, sunny skies, and temps in the low 70's at the beaches. Could have sworn it was October around here- except the water temps in the high 50's reminded me it was late January instead. For Friday, the SW will hang around while the 'Eddie swell fades. Look for more chest high sets most everywhere. 

On Saturday, the SW fades while new NW fills in for more chest high surf. The same storm that is giving us surf on Saturday, is also giving us showers late Sunday. Look for a slight uptick in surf on Sunday for shoulder high sets- but most likely SW winds. And here are tides, sunrise/sunset, and water temps for the next few days:

• Sunrise and sunset:
•  6:46 AM sunrise
•  5:18 PM sunset 

• Water temps are now 57 degrees due to the N and NE winds the past few days. 

• And tides have evened out this weekend:
• about 3' at sunrise
• 1' mid-morning
• and 2.5' late afternoon

FORECAST:

Forecast calls for showers on Monday- so we'll most likely have W or NW winds that will make a mess of the weekend's leftover NW swell. 

Tuesday is a transition day as the weather and surf tries to clean up with more chest high surf and a new small SW arrives. Wednesday has more chest high sets in far N County SD and the OC from the SW, then the rest of the week should have nice weather and smaller waist high surf from the NW. 

Nothing big on the horizon but we may bet more chest high+ NW next Sunday. So until then, enjoy THIS weekend. 

WEATHER:

Offshore 'Santa Ana' winds will back off tonight and we may see a return of patchy fog by Friday evening as the next Pacific cold front heads our way. Saturday looks to be mostly cloudy and cooler then our next shot of showers arrives Sunday afternoon. Nothing big like our storms the past few weeks but there is a chance of 1/2" of rain by Monday. That departs by Tuesday then the 2nd half of next week should be sunny and mild. Here's a quick summary of the week ahead:

• Patchy fog late on Friday and temps in the mid-60's
• Saturday has a few more clouds and temps in the low 60's
• Showers by noon on Sunday and temps only in the mid-50's! 
• More of the same on Monday and breezy
• Transition day Tuesday and things dry out and cool temps again
• Then we're back to low 60's and sunny skies the 2nd half of next week.

If anything changes between now and then, make sure to follow North County Surf on Twitter!

BEST BET:

Friday/Saturday with leftover SW/NW and clean conditions. 

NEWS OF THE WEEK:

California is known for some of the best and user friendly surf on the planet. Sure the crowds are ridiculous, but if you want to push your surfing, let me introduce you to Lowers, Blacks, Malibu, Rincon, and Swamis. But if you REALLY want to push your surfing, you're looking for something a little less crowded, and fear is not a word in your vocabulary, I've got some spots for just a handful of people. THE Surf Report will be doing a 5 part series on the sketchiest waves in the Golden State, starting with #5 this week... Ghost Tree. Take into consideration the large boulders in the take off zone, the sharks, the fog, the wind, the kelp (which will snag your fins or even worse- hold you under after a wipe out), AND the loss of life, Ghost Tree should be higher up on this list. Regardless, Surfertoday.com did a great write up on the spot recently. Here's what they had to say: 

It was once hailed as the next big thing in extreme surfing until a series of events and federal decisions kept riders out of the water. Ghost Tree is a surf break located in Pebble Beach, California, just outside the 18th hole of Pebble Beach Golf Links in the Monterey Peninsula.

The name of the spot was given by local surfers. It derives from the white and gnarly local cypress trees in the area and, in particular, from a spooky tree where the ghostly figure of a former land owner, Dona Maria - "The Lady in Lace" - has been spotted on dark foggy nights. The truth is that Ghost Tree's mythical aura resulted in tragic consequences and became one of the few waves in the world to claim a surfer's life. The pioneers of big wave surfing in this Central California right-hand avalanche never approved its mainstream nickname. They prefer to call it Pescadero Point.

The story of Ghost Tree goes back to the early 1960s when Fred Van Dyke adventured himself into Ghost Tree and bodysurfed it. In the following decades, surfers explored the surroundings, studied the optimal riding conditions, and gave it a go. However, most of them felt the wave was too fast and broke too close to the Monterey Peninsula's coastal rocky formations.

Everything changed in the 2000s with the advent of motorized personal watercraft (PwC) and tow surfing - surfers could catch any wave they wanted while backed up by water safety teams. "I watch golf, and the Pebble Beach Pro-Am goes on all the time, and it's right along the ocean," recalls big wave surfer Peter Mel. "As a surfer, anytime you see a wave, you're like, 'Is that a wave?' So I remember distinctly watching it. "It was a nice beautiful day, there was some swell running, and I saw these rights peeling off the point in the background." "Sure enough, in one of our first times there, we got to tow it for the first time."

Mel was not alone at Ghost Tree. He was with Adam Repogle. "We did learn a lot in that first session. I'm glad we didn't show up on a day when it was really doing it because we wouldn't have had any idea what to expect," notes Repogle. "It was definitely pumping, but it was small in relation to what was to come." "After the word got out that Peter and I had surfed it, many guys from down there said it had been surfed before - guys have paddled into that wave."

At the time, everyone knew that on the biggest days, there was no way people were going to paddle in. And so it became a tow-in 50-foot-plus cult wave. The big wave surfing community had a new sanctuary in the heart of the California coast. For three years - 2005, 2006, and 2007 - powerful west groundswells blessed Pescadero Point with humungous waves. On December 4, 2007, the surf break claimed a human life during a long-period XXL swell.

"I tried jumping off the rocks off the back side, and I grabbed this kind of tree and slid down the cliff, but it broke, fell, and I crashed," explains Anthony Tashnick. "I got washed on the rocks, blown out, and paddled out around." "Then, I saw Peter Davi. I went up and asked him where I should sit and if it was cool to paddle there. And he was like, 'Oh, yeah!'" "He pulled a tow board and gave me the best introduction to the whole area. He was so passionate. He said, 'It's not called Ghost Tree! It's called Pescadero Point!'" "He told me how much the area meant to him and basically guided me into a wave. I got one wave, I was on my feet in the air, and it felt forever." "I got bounced off, got pounded, and then washed up. I ran to my car, and that was the last time I saw Pete." Longtime local Peter Davi (1962-2007) had drowned at his dear Pescadero Point.

The tragic episode triggered a cold war between the surfing community and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NOAA is the federal agency that manages American marine sanctuaries. The problem was that PwCs were a threat to the protection of wildlife. They were launching at Monterey Harbor, traveling 11 miles around the Monterey Peninsula and through six protected marine areas before getting to the infamous surf break. Ultimately, NOAA decided that big wave surfing at Ghost Tree and environmental protection were incompatible. An exception - with specific rules - took effect 100 miles north at Half Moon Bay's Mavericks in March 2009. In December, January, and February, surfers could get tow-in assist and jet ski rescue when a high surf warning was in effect. As a result, the focus and attention shifted from Central to Northern California, and Mavericks regained the status of a cult wave.

The good thing about the jet ski regulation was that a growing number of surfers started returning to the sport's essence and replacing motor with arm power. In reality, there were new grounds to be conquered and new heights to be climbed by taking paddle-in to taller and taller waves. Rather quickly, Mavericks took over the big wave surfing scene in California, and Ghost Tree succumbed to its raw nature and fell off the map. "If you were to charge a place like that on the biggest days, you'd be doing it solely on your own, concluded Mel. "So anybody charging it big now is taking a huge risk. We don't have the safety mechanisms you have at other places in the world." The myth of Pescadero Point is still alive, though. The wave is still there, rising in the sky as vibrant and exuberant as ever in green, kelp-infested waters and waiting for the paddle-in heroes of tomorrow.

PIC OF THE WEEK:

From afar, it almost looks peaceful. Nice big channel to paddle out in, lack of a crowd, sunny skies, and darn good shape. AND... the legendary Pebble Beach Golf Course sits on the point. But we all know better, don't we?

Keep Surfing, 
Michael W. Glenn
Boundless Energy
Earth's Inner Core Stopped. My Bad. 
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