JUNE ZOOM!
SURF:
I’m trademarking a new slogan. In regards to overcast conditions and non-beach weather, I'm sure you’ve heard of Graypril, May Gray, and June Gloom. Now get ready for… June Zoom! Basically I think we should just bypass June and get to the good stuff- sunny skies, surf, and warm water. I’m writing off June and just want to get to July three weeks early. Who’s on board? In the meantime, we have yet another low pressure system headed towards So-Cal this weekend which will deepen the marine layer, keep the W winds blowin’, and our surf small within arms reach. Look for small SW groundswell and NW windswell for waist high waves this weekend. Water is still in the low 60’s- and no sign of that warmer than usual El Nino blob off Central America headed our way. And here's the sun/tides/water temps for the weekend:
- Sunrise and Sunset:
- 5:40 AM
- 7:56 PM
- Water temps
- Still slightly below normal at 63 here in SD/OC
- And the colder than normal water temps are still extending below Cabo San Lucas- so no go for El Nino fueled hurricanes
- And tides for the weekend are:
- 2' at sunrise
- 0' late morning
- 4.5' late afternoon
- and down to 3.5' at sunset
FORECAST:
The OC was the recipient of fun surf this past week (again) while the SSW swells bypassed SD (again). For next week, the OC will join the ranks of SD and be on the small side as we don’t have any swells of interest from Antarctica, Mainland Mexico, or the Aleutians. Look for most spots to be waist high at best.
Our next shot of swell may be around the 18th from the SSW. So until then, pray for sun. If anything changes between now and then, make sure to follow North County Surf on Twitter!
BEST BET:
Friday towards the OC with leftover small SSW or this weekend in SD with small NW windswell. Exciting!
WEATHER:
Our low pressure woes continue here in California as another weak low pressure system sets up shop above the southern end of the state. The silver lining in all this? The record snow pack in the central Sierras is hanging in there as temps at night are in the high 30’s, only mid-50’s during the day, and a light dusting of snow above 10,000’. Seriously. If you’re a snowsurfer, head to Mammoth in the coming weeks as they’ll be open until the end of July. As far as So-Ca goes, temps SHOULD warm up a couple degrees each day next week with MAYBE less low clouds for pleasant afternoon beach weather. Here’s what we have for the upcoming week:
• Friday to Monday: Mostly cloudy. Temps 63/60
• Tuesday to Thursday: Slight chance of afternoon sun. Temps 65/60
• And a little more sun next weekend? Is that asking too much?
NEWS OF THE WEEK:
As you’ve probably heard the past decade, we’ve seen a lot more juvenile sharks off our waters of Southern California. A recent report sheds light on what the term ‘off our waters’ means (think nearshore), how often they’re underfoot (think too close for comfort), and where they tend to congregate (think Encinitas- north and south). But before you change your summer plans, here’s Smithsonian Magazine to educate us:
Surfers, swimmers and waders in Southern California have been unwittingly sharing the water with great white sharks more often than they likely realize, according to a new study published last week in the journal Plos One.
At two popular beaches, sharks and people swam together 97 percent of the time, the researchers found.
Though that statistic might make some swimmers want to stick to the beach, the study’s authors say the findings should actually reassure outdoor adventurers that sharks pose a low risk to humans, per the Los Angeles Times’ Christian Martinez. Despite what movies like Jaws have led beach-goers to believe, sharks tend to “mind their own business,” as study co-author Patrick Rex, a marine biologist in the “Shark Lab” at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB), tells the publication.
“People think, ‘If I see a shark … I’m going to get bitten, or I’m in danger,’” he says to the L.A. Times. “And what we’ve seen is that that’s not necessarily the case.”The findings also revealed that sharks are swimming a lot closer to the beach than previously thought—instead of miles out, they may be within 50 to 100 yards of where the waves break, or even closer.
To understand great white shark behavior along the coast, researchers flew drones over 26 beaches in Southern California from January 2019 to March 2021. They analyzed more than 700 hours of video footage, making note of where and when waders, surfers, swimmers and stand-up paddle boarders were recreating. They also recorded observations of individual sharks, then compared the sightings to get a sense of the human-shark distribution.
Two areas stood out: one in southern Santa Barbara County, and another in central San Diego County. In these so-called “aggregation sites,” or nursery habitats, the researchers noted a big overlap between water users and sharks—and in particular, juvenile white sharks. Those young creatures like to hang out near the beach to feed on fish, squid and stingrays, as well as bask in the warmer water temperatures and enjoy some protection from predators like orcas, adult white sharks and large mako sharks.
Though the researchers could clearly see sharks and humans in close proximity to one another in the footage, the humans likely had no idea the fish were nearby, per the Sacramento Bee’s David Caraccio. To understand the full implications of this overlap, researchers also dug into shark bite data. They found just one reported incident during the two-year survey period in Southern California, and in that case, the swimmer could not identify the marine animal that bit her. More broadly, they found evidence of just 20 unprovoked white shark bites in the region since 2000.
Conservation efforts have allowed white sharks to flourish along California’s coast. And because of rising temperatures from human-caused climate change, more humans are likely heading to the beach to cool off. Despite these converging trends, the researchers found “little evidence of increased frequency shark bites on humans in southern California,” they write in the paper.
Even so, lifeguards up and down Southern California’s coast may want to use the study’s findings to help inform their approach, per the paper—the researchers expect the shark aggregation sites to change in the future.
“These sharks are highly mobile—they can always be at your beach—but rest assured, the data that we’re getting now indicates that as long as you’re not bothering them, they won’t bother you,” says study co-author Chris Lowe, a marine biologist and the director of CSULB’s Shark Lab, to KTLA’s Cindy Von Quednow.
PIC OF THE WEEK:
I’m so desperate for surf right now, I’d surf this 15’ Teahupoo bomb. Finless. And blindfolded.
Keep Surfing,
Michael W. Glenn
Michael W. Glenn
Slick
Financial Advisor To Financial Advisors
Widely Regarded As The Foremost Expert On Surfing
