Surf Check 8/28/12

Bean REALLY small the past few days. Great weather but no surf to enjoy along with it. Like having salsa but no chips. Not cool.

Today is small yet again with just background waist high SW and a touch of NW. That pretty much lasts through Thursday morning unfortunately. Sun was already out at 6am this morning and the water continues to be warm at around 70.

Tides the next few days are 2' at sunrise, almost 5' at 9am, down to 1' at 2pm, and back up to 6' at sunset.

The weather maps the past few days have been all over the place. Looked like we were going to have low clouds at the beaches mid-week and that didn't materialize of course. Then it looked like the low clouds were to return this weekend- but now charts show they should be held to a minimum. Regardless, there's a weak front forecasted to move through central CA this weekend so it should kick up our low clouds a little bit in the mornings- thankfully they won't stick to the coast like last Friday/Saturday and we'll have sunny skies and temps in the low 70's by mid-day. Maybe some tropical clouds overhead too.

Now before I get to the forecast, let me say it kills me that we have 4 areas of the Pacific that generate surf for us: NW windswell off Point Conception, NW or W swells from the Aleutians, S swell from the tropics, and S or SW swells from the southern hemisphere. For the past week, we've had great weather and none of these areas generated surf for us. NOW... 3 out 4 of these areas are currently generating swell that will hit our shores in the coming days. It would have been nice if Mother Nature spread the wealth the last few days instead of having them hit all at once! I guess beggars can't be choosers...

First up on the charts is some building NW windswell tomorrow. Nothing much but SD may have some waist high sets. The real story is the tropics and southern hemisphere.

Tropical Storm Ileana is currently spinning of Mexico and should hit minimal hurricane status by tomorrow with 80 mph winds. Not impressive but it will hit our swell window AND it's moving in our direction. Far north SD county will probably see chest high sets by Saturday and the OC some shoulder high sets.

The real story is a storm in the southern hemisphere that flared up a few days ago and then restrengthened yesterday. Since we haven't had real surf in months, this swell will be a welcome shot in the arm. Look for some shoulder high sets on Friday in SD then head high sets towards Sunday- and a couple overhead sets in far north SD county. The OC will make out slightly better with overhead sets on Friday and surf a few feet overhead on Sunday. There will also be a little boost of NW windswell this weekend too so it may help peak up the lines in SD but not much in the OC. Unfortunately for Ileana, the southern hemisphere swell will override the hurricane swell so it will pretty much go to waste. All in all should be a fun weekend of surf. I may actually break out the 6'2" again!