THE Surf Report

Duck!

SURF:
Where do I start? It seems like the upcoming week has a little of everything being thrown at us. First up is today and Saturday.

High pressure is in control and blocking our storms and hence keeping the swells away. Look for waist high sets towards SD. On the flip side, high pressure is also giving the OC some offshore 'Santa Ana' winds and to a lesser extent SD. Just no surf to make good use of the winds.

By Sunday high pressure starts to break down, the fog returns, and we get our next NW swell. Should have some shoulder high sets later in the day so all is not lost this weekend.

Water temps are still 57 and tides the next few days are pretty mellow; 1.4' at 8am, 2.8' at 2pm, and just about 2' at sunset. Make sure to keep up to date on the waves/weather at Twitter/North County Surf. 

FORECAST:

After high pressure breaks down this weekend and the fog/surf returns, we have more of the same on Monday. By Tuesday, the storm door is open and in comes the rain and wind as well as solid overhead storm surf. We may get a clean break Thursday morning then later in the day and into Friday more junky NW chest high NW swell/showers.

And as we head into the spring, the southern hemisphere is starting to come to life. Charts a couple days ago had a solid storm forming but have since backed off slightly as the forecasted storm looks smaller and moving more E to W (not ideally pointed N at us). I'm hoping we do though get some chest high SW in the OC towards the 26th of February and kicking in a little better towards the 28th.

WEATHER:

Enjoy the nice weather while you can. We've got  high pressure in control through Saturday and temps in the mid-70's at the beaches. Then high pressure starts to retreat Sunday/Monday and the low clouds/fog return. By Tuesday we've got rain and wind in store for the area. Models aren't in good agreement on the strength of the storm but I'm guessing it's will be a typical winter storm with about 1/4"-1/2" of rain and wind gusts around 20mph. We get a little break Thursday morning and maybe another weaker storm with showers for Friday. Basically we're looking at cooler unsettled weather next week.

BEST BET:
Even though the fog returns on Sunday, we do get a new NW swell and clean conditions. Can't beat that.

NEWS OF THE WEEK:

The El Nino that was supposed to form this winter turned out to be a dud of course. But I was at least hoping we'd have a normal rainfall season. So how are we looking with just a few weeks left of winter?:
-Newport Beach: 4.55" of rain so far. Normal by this time of year is 8.36". That leaves us at 54% of where we should be.
-Oceanside: 5.24" of rain so far. Normal this time of year is 8.15". That leaves us at 64% of where we should be.
-San Diego: 4.65" of rain so far. Normal this time of year is 6.27". That leaves us at 74% of where we should be.
As you can see we're pretty far behind and need to play catch up. With the storms next week not being that big, we may only add another 1/2" of rain which may get us to 75-80% of normal- still a long way off. With spring around the corner, we can only hope March and April dump buckets around here. The new desalination plant in Carlsbad isn't sounding so bad right about now.
 
BEST OF THE BLOG:

The 'Next Big Thing' gets thrown out a lot (heck, I was even called the next Tom Curren when I was younger, then I hit my 20's and everyone said I could give Slater a run for his money, and recently people started calling me the 'Goofyfoot Dane Reynolds'. But all of that is a story for another time). So when everyone starts calling a kid the Real Deal, you get a little skeptical. Well John John is the real deal- from 2' to 20'. His signature film 'Done' is premiering on the mainland this weekend in Encinitas. Check out the details on the North County Surf Blog. And of course a mid-week Surf Check AND an in-depth THE Surf Report. All of that and more in the blog below!

PIC OF THE WEEK:

I've said it before and I'll say it again- I love how the surf media jumps on the 'hot new surf spot', blows it out, then discards it for the next hot new surf spot. Weren't we all in love with Isla Natividad years ago, the Superbank, Todos Santos, Ours, P-Pass, and now Keramas?! One spot that has gotten overlooked- but is still cranking out smokin' tubes- is Cloud 9. Remember Taylor Knox and Evan Slater getting pitted out of their minds there back in the early 90's? That wave is still there. Just less photographers now.

Keep Surfing,

Michael W. Glenn
The Next Big Thing After The Next Big Thing
Carnival Cruise Director
First to Glass a Surfboard With Glass