Traffic.
SURF:
Seems like we’ve been running running running with good surf… then stop. Lots of good SW waves early in the week but the past few days were lagging. This morning unfortunately we’ve got a low tide, lack of swell, and cool cloudy conditions. Not too appetizing. Most waves around town are waist high SW with maybe a bigger set in the OC. There is also background knee high+ NW- maybe some waist high waves in south SD.
The rest of the weekend looks to be the same- small SW/NW, low tide, and cool in the morning with some hazy afternoon sunshine. Not too sound spoiled or anything, but this weekend should boring. Water temps are holding at 70- good weekend to teach your lady friend how to surf. Tides the next few days are -1’ at sunrise, 4.5’ at 11am, down to 1’ at 4pm, and up to 5’ at sunset. Make sure to keep up to date on the waves and weather at Twitter/North County Surf.
FORECAST:
By now you’ve probably seen or heard about that big SW swell that hit Tavarua a few days ago. Some solid 30’+ bombs down there that Wassel, Healey, Slater, Kohl, D. Gudang, Bruce, and the boys paddled into at Cloudbreak. Just our luck though- the south Pacific Islands pretty much blocked that storm/swell from sending real surf our way so we’ll only get some inconsistent chest high waves starting Monday from it with a bigger head high set in the OC. That should last until Tuesday. Charts are also showing a slight increase every few days from NW windswell (probably Saturday and Tuesday and Friday of next week)- only waist high but it might be rideable in south SD. Charts show some activity in the southern hemisphere about 5 days out which means almost 2 weeks later for us (around the end of the month) so it's looking a bit quiet down there. We also have some clouds off of Central America that aren’t really organized but hopefully towards Monday we’ll have a better indication of what it may turn out to be. Considering the other 3 hurricanes this season died out before they hit our swell window, I’m not expecting much from this either. Man do I sound depressing. Maybe I should listen to my mom’s old proverb- if I don’t have anything nice to say, I shouldn’t say it at all!
WEATHER:
I actually had showers at my house yesterday. Had to use the windshield wipers while dropping off my groms at camp. Felt more like January then July. We have a weak trough sitting over us today which has dropped temps 10 degrees below normal. Heck- Palm Springs around lunch time yesterday was only 89 when they should have been low 100’s. I don’t think anyone out there is complaining. Back here at the coast though this morning, we’ve got some low clouds, cool temps, and a shot at afternoon sunshine later. That set up lasts until tomorrow then we get back to normal early in the week; look for high pressure to set up shop again and give us less clouds in the morning and beach temps in the high 70’s. Charts unfortunately are showing another weak trough setting up shop late next week. It’starting to remind me of last summer...
BEST BET:
Nothing too exciting but I’ll have to say Tuesday- we have better beach weather on tap, that inconsistent ‘Tavi’ SW swell peaking (albeit waist-chest high), and some added small NW swell. Nothing to call in sick at work for but it should be the best day in an overall slow upcoming week. NEWS OF THE WEEK:
Great article from the San Diego Union Tribune earlier this week. Maybe you’ve heard the story already or not- in a nutshell we’ve literally got a tsunami of trash headed our way. Due to the currents in the Pacific, all that junk the tsunami in Japan washed into the sea is headed our way. Not all of it thankfully- a lot will be sucked into the Pacific Gyre- but we may have some odd stuff washed up onto our beaches in the coming years. Read on…
A tide of trash from tsunami-ravaged Japan is drifting across the Pacific Ocean and should reach California’s shores in three years or less, computer models show. Marine researchers expect the flotsam will wash up in bits and pieces, not in the huge rafts of debris that formed off Japan’s coast shortly after the March disaster that started with a 9.0 magnitude earthquake. Much of the material will sink or get pulled into the vast, swirling gyre of garbage in the mid-Pacific, but some buoyant pieces — particularly plastics — should make it from coastline to coastline given the prevailing eastward currents. The debris’ journey from Japan to San Diego will cover about 5,500 miles. It’s an intriguing prospect for beachgoers who comb the sand for trinkets or oddities from far-off lands — say fishing buoys, household objects or the proverbial message in a bottle. It’s also a reminder of Mother Nature’s unpredictable fury and a testing ground for scientific models of ocean movements. U.S. officials, university researchers and advocacy groups anticipate the debris will create navigational hazards and increased garbage along the West Coast even as they acknowledge there’s no certainty about how much of the trash will reach the United States. Some view the natural disaster as a teachable moment — one that helps residents realize how much trash ends up on the high seas from sources that can be controlled. Ocean experts said the U.S. may eventually need to mobilize a cleanup program in nearshore waters. “You want to do the right scale of response,” said Kris McElwee with the marine debris program run by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Hawaii. “We don’t know whether to expect flotsam as usual or a little tiny bump or a big bump.” In late June, McElwee met with representatives from the Navy, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the University of Hawaii and other organizations to start strategizing about debris tracking and management. She said a problem is that participants don’t have money for emergency response related to the debris from Japan. “One thing that was definitely of interest all around the room was working with mariners and trying to get observations from people who already are out at sea,” McElwee said. Other ideas included deploying satellite-linked buoys alongside floating debris to track where it’s going, closely monitoring locations — such as the Midway Atoll — that likely will get the trash well before the mainland, and flying across the projected path in search of clues about debris flow. The tsunami created millions of tons of wreckage along Japan’s coastline. Heavy merchandise such as homes and cars sank quickly, while patches of buoyant items initially stretched for miles. By mid-April, those floating dumps had dispersed to the point that U.S. marine officials could no longer track them by satellite. Widely cited projections by the University of Hawaii at Manoa estimate the debris plume stretching roughly halfway across the Pacific by March and approaching California’s shores two years later. But federal scientists said it’s impossible to accurately predict currents and winds over so much time, leaving it uncertain when or where the items might appear on U.S. soil. What’s more clear is that the material won’t be radioactive because the flushing of Japan’s coastline preceded leaks at nuclear generators in the hardest-hit area. Large items such as capsized boats and shipping containers may make it across and create navigational hazards close to the coast. More common pieces likely will include construction wood, plastic household goods and fishing gear. The possibilities remind researcher Bruce Cornuelle at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla of finding colored glass buoys from the Japanese fishing fleet when he was a kid growing up in Hawaii. The “big beautiful blue spheres” carried to shore by the high tides were quite a catch for beachcombers, especially when they still had pieces of fishing net attached. These days, Cornuelle models ocean circulation at Scripps. He compares the tsunami debris to a drop of cream in a cup of coffee. “If you stir the coffee cup, that patch spread out until it fills the whole cup,” Cornuelle said. He said items will move at various rates based on whether they are riding on top of the waves, are suspended below the surface or stick into the air to catch wind. At the Algalita Marine Research Foundation in Long Beach, executive director Marieta Francis is waiting for the debris to reach Southern California. She figures objects that make it this far largely will be plastics, which she views as the scourge of the ocean because they can kill sea creatures and possibly inject chemicals into the marine food web. For more than a decade, the foundation has been a leader in drawing attention to the trash — including countless pieces of plastic — swirling endlessly in the mid-Pacific. It’s been dubbed the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” and a recent study by graduate students at Scripps showed that nearly one in 10 fish sampled in the region contained plastic bits. “Trying to clean it up (on the water) would be like trying to clean up the whole Sahara Desert with one tractor,” Francis said. “What we can do about it is to stop more from getting out there
BEST OF THE BLOG:
Dane is back! Or almost back; looks like he’s skipping the J-Bay contest but with his rehabbed knee, his surfing is still 10 times better than me. Dane put together a little clip that I linked to my site and he throws down some serious man turns as well as the occasional blow tail. And if that wasn’t enough, I’ve got the trailer of Kai Neville’s new film ‘Lost Atlas’ with more, you guessed it, Dane. And if the recent degrading of surf culture by corporate America (see Hollister, Abercrombie, Costco, etc) has got you down, then make sure to stop by Surfy Surfy this weekend and get your stoke back on. Read all of that and more in the blog below!
PIC OF THE WEEK:
I love stories like this: Seems as though a friend of mine was to go on a boat trip to Indo. Convinces his wife to get a hall pass, works his tail off for the vacation time, rallies his buddies to go, saves his pennies- and then the boat trip falls through due to force majeure. He then scrambles to find a new spot to vacation at in early June and ends up in mainland Mex. As luck would have it- a hurricane forms- which is unusually early for June. Bad news is that it brushes their camp and dumps wind and rain for days on end while his family wonders if he’s alive. Good news is that weather cleaned up, the surf started firing, and he got what he came for- empty point break barrels. I guess good things really come to those who wait.
Keep Surfing,
Michael W. Glenn
Man Behind The ManHave A Leaky Debt Ceiling
Was The 2nd to Ride Pipe Behind Phil
