THE Surf Report- early edition

Enjoy it while it lasts.

SURF:
Sending out an early THE Surf Report tonight as I'm cracking it in the morning! So without further delay...

After a slow start to the week, the weather cleared up, the S filled in, and all was right in the world today. Tomorrow is looking pretty darn good too as the weather gets a little warmer and there's still a couple leftover waves from the S. Get it while you can as the S will back off over the weekend and the weather will turn sour (more on that below). There's not much NW in the water as the S is a little lined up- make sure to hit a reef, point, jetty, or point.

Tides the next few days are 4' at sunrise, 0' at lunch, down to 1' at 4pm, and about 5' at sunset. Water temps are hitting 64 degrees too with all this nice weather. Make sure to keep up to date on the waves/weather at Twitter/North County Surf.

FORECAST:

After the fun surf to start the weekend, Monday is looking a little bumpy around here as we have a weak storm moving through the area. If there's any S left, it's looking pretty junky. Once the storm clears up mid-week, there's not much surf on the charts from either the S or NW. The models do show a little bump forming towards the 5th down in the southern hemisphere which may give us chest high waves in north county SD towards next Saturday and shoulder high sets in the OC.

After that, models start to go a little wacky and show a good storm forming in the north Pacific next weekend which may give us good NW towards next Sunday.

There's also a brute on the charts in the southern hemisphere that's supposedly going to form around the 10th- if that's the case, we'll have solid overhead SW swell around the 17th. I hope I hope I hope.

WEATHER:

Boy are we due for a change later this weekend. Great weather today with temps near 80 at the coast and Friday may hit some records as high pressure peaks. Looks like we may hit 85 degrees at the beach tomorrow. Models then show a couple small low pressure systems taking aim at Southern California and merging into one larger one. Could be interesting around here come late Saturday as the fog returns then clouds on Sunday. By Sunday evening into Monday we could have a chance of thunderstorms and rain totals near 1/3" at the coast. Which is much needed of course. Tuesday is a transition day and we're back to sunshine and temps in the mid to high 60's later next week.

BEST BET:
Looks like tomorrow is the last gasp of the SW swell AND amazing weather.

NEWS OF THE WEEK:

For the past 15 years, the News of the Week has always been a story related to science. Whether it be a discussion on the formation of storms, wave physics, climatology, you name it- it’s been related to education. Well today I break the mold slightly for 1 special occasion. The last few years have seen a proliferation of 4 main trends in the surf world: surfboard auctions, film festivals, stand up paddleboards, and John John Florence. 3 of which I’m a fan of. Anyway, an old friend of mine (he’s not that old- just older than me- and I’m just 32) opened a surf shop a few years ago by the name of Bird’s Surf Shed. I used to work for Bird (a.k.a. Eric Huffman) at the old South Coast Windansea surf shop in Pacific Beach back in the mid-90’s. I remember Bird being 40 and surfing the pier with the Momentum guys like Travis Molina, Benji and Jason Weatherly, Saxon Boucher- and he’d be throwing out reverses with the best of them. They were amazed an ‘old guy’ could hold his own. Bird still rips almost 20 years later and he continues to wow 'em- in this case with the San Diego Surf Film Festival being held at his Surf Shed. I’ve always been a big fan of surf films- from the Endless Summer to Bali High to Mad Wax to Beyond Blazing Boards to Momentum to Lost Atlas. But what’s been a blessing and a curse is the amount of quick edit clips on the internet. Sure it makes the world smaller and it’s great to see cutting edge footage the day it was shot- but what’s missing is 200 surfers hooting in unison, the story behind the surfers and locations, and the anticipation of the next great surf film.

The San Diego Surf Film festival brings all that back to Bird’s Surf Shed May 8th-12th. Due to it’s overwhelming response last year, the festival added a 2nd day this year. And if the line up of films wasn’t great enough, just taking a walk down memory lane in Bird’s shop is worth the price of admission alone (more on Bird’s historic shed in another article- but basically it’s a surf museum full of the greatest boards ever collected. It’ll bring a tear to your eye). In addition to highlighting over 35 international films, it will also have a surf art gallery, amazing live music, beach clean- ups, shaping demos and surf expression sessions. Check out the schedule here. Be there or be banished to boogie boarding for the rest of your life!

BEST OF THE BLOG:

Amazing weather today and it's just going to get better tomorrow. You know what's better than getting some good surf on a Friday afternoon? Having a beer afterwards and hanging with your crew. Trust me- the Aussies have this figured out. Luckily for us, the Bier Garden has opened up in downtown Encinitas. 23 local beers on tap and plenty of tables outside. Sounds like a good reason to skip out of work early on Friday. Check out the full story on the North County Surf Blog as well as 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:

Asia is so hot right now. From Dane and the boys surfing Japan in Lost Atlas to all the latest smart phones to China finally holding an ASP contest to Psy's new hit 'Gentlemen' to North Korea and their crazy little leader (well actually those last two have cooled off recently). But anyway, the other side of the Pacific is where it's. Like this killer little empty wave in Tawain. Or I think it's Tawain. Could be Vietnam. Or Japan. Or China maybe? Anyway, that's not important. What's important is that Asia is so hot right now.

Keep Surfing,

Michael W. Glenn
Secret Agent
Extra in Mrs. Doubtfire 2
Subbing for John John on the 'CT