John Lyman
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Forecast has building NW windswell, pulses of S-SW swell, some weak tropical energy and Sir Edward will rule them all.

Surf Forecast Overview

As we move into the weekend we get a strong pulse of NW winds moving through our outer waters, driving up NW windswell, but also spinning up the eddy, which will stick around on and off for the next several days. We will also have some playful sized S-SW swells (180-220) from a few different storms in the Southern Hemi that will help combo up the NW windswell. Friday and Saturday will also see a very small SE tropical swell (150-170) from TS Aletta…but it’s energy will likely be lost in the other swells and crumble from the eddy.

Short Range Surf Outlook (next 4 days)

Friday – (Still a halfway decent blend of S-SW energy, some local NW windswell, and a tiny taste of tropical swell from former Tropical Storm Aletta).

Friday will be rideable in a few S wind protected spots, but overall it isn’t looking like it will be all that exciting surfwise. We will have a mix of S-SW swell (180-220) from a couple of different storms in the Southern Hemi. At the same time we get a playful run of WNW-NW swell (285-300), and some very background tropical SE swell (155-165) that will arrive throughout the day. Most spots will with exposure to just some of the swell mix will have some waist-chest high surf and maybe a rare shoulder high set if the tides and energy combos up just right. The standout N-NW facing windswell breaks and excellent NW/SW combo breaks will have some rare shoulder-head high sets, but only on the better parts of the tide swing.

Winds/Weather: The slight eddy is forecast to deepen a bit on Friday with the core of the eddy setting up just to the north of Catalina Island. Looks like Santa Barbara and Ventura will get some N-ENE flow as the winds move down out of the canyons. LA looks mostly light and variable…with cleaner conditions in the South Bay if the winds come in more from the SE. Orange County and San Diego is where most of the damage occurs…seeing S-SSW winds for South SD up through South OC…and then more S flow through North OC. Right now speeds are likely to be in the 4-6 knot range with some stronger gusts at the ore exposed spots. WSW winds 10-15 knots move in through the afternoon.

Saturday – (The mix of swells stays mostly the same along with the eddy winds.)

Saturday will be another of those “rideable” days…but only if you are lucky to be on the correct side of the eddy low or have a combo break with S wind protection. Our swell mix stays nominally the same…the NW windswell drops slightly, but a new S-swell (190-200) moves into the existing S-SW blend (180-220) helping to prop up the fading swells from the work week, and our tropical SE swell trails off. Overall it looks like the average exposed spots will drop slightly…hanging mostly in the knee-waist high range with some inconsistent chest high peaks at the better than average combo spots. The standout combo spots that can really pull in rideable shape from the windswell/S-SW swell mix, will be slightly bigger…showing more consistent waist-chest high waves and the occasional shoulder high set.

Winds/Weather: The eddy hangs around on Saturday…weakening slightly, but still doing the N-NNW wind thing through Santa Barbara, E-ESE flow in Ventura/LA, and S-SSW crumble texture at the exposed beaches in San Diego and Orange County. The winds should again be around 3-5 knots in the morning, not totally blowing it out, but not keeping things all that clean either, and then they turn onshore out of the W around 10-15 knots in the afternoon.

Sunday – (Conditions clean up a bit on Sunday, but the swell mix slowly backs down despite some new, but small, Southern Hemi pulses.)

Sunday looks like the cleanest day of the weekend, at least through the early morning hours. A slight ridge of high-pressure is supposed to try and offset the eddy, but it has its work cut out for it. Swellwise we will continue to see a mix of dropping NW windswell (290-300) and some overlapping S-SW swells (180-220) coming in from various fetches all over the SPAC. Most of the average exposed spots will settle into the knee-waist high range with rare chest high sets. Standout breaks with good combo swell exposure will have some of those inconsistent chest-shoulder high peaks on the lower tides…and may be so inconsistent that they won’t be worth waiting for, probably be a better idea to bring your small-wave gear.

Winds/Weather: With the inland areas cooling off overnight it looks like we may get a slight shift in the winds for Sunday morning, starting off mostly light/variable, to even slightly offshore around Ventura and Santa Barbara…OC and SD may have a bit of leftover texture but it depends on when the eddy starts to unravel the night before. W winds return in the afternoon, pushing onshore around 10-12 knots at the more exposed areas.