SW Swell & Clean Conditions In Store For SoCal

With a favorable trajectory, the southwest swell is set to produce some pretty good-sized waves. The swell initially picks up on Tuesday but grows through Wednesday before peaking early Thursday morning. For most of Wednesday and Thursday, our southwest facing shorelines should experience 4 to 5-ft waves with periods between 14 and 16 seconds. The winds and weather look ideal too, making this one of the best surfing opportunities so far this spring.

Best Bets

- Wednesday afternoon looks near perfect along the southwest facing shore between Oceanside and San Clemente. A 5-ft ground swell is expected with near calm winds and fair weather.

- All-day Wednesday along the south facing shore between Santa Monica and Oxnard. We should see a 4-5 ft ground swell along with calm winds and good weather.

- Thursday morning along southwest facing shorelines looks just as good as Wednesday evening, if not better. Winds should be calm or light from the offshore direction along with a 4-5 ft southwest ground swell. 

MONDAY

We start the week off with a lingering northwest hybrid swell that originally picks up over the weekend. Waves don't look super impressive, but we could see spots with 3 or maybe even 4-ft heights. San Diego looks like the best place to surf where waves have the highest chance of being over 3 ft. Other good shorelines include Ventura and the coast between Oceanside and San Clemente. Wind should stay light from the offshore direction, making for somewhat decent surf conditions in the morning other than the short periods around 10 seconds.

Waves continue falling through the afternoon and evening making for a good day to maybe skip out on surfing. The vast majority of the shoreline is looking at just 2-ft waves with south facing shorelines staying closer to 1-ft in size. At best, we'll get to see 3-ft swells between Oceanside and San Clemente and possibly San Diego as well. Winds could become an issue in the afternoon with a 10-15 mph onshore breeze possible although models have trended down on this recently.

TUESDAY

The same quiet surf conditions as Monday evening continue into Tuesday morning. If anything, we'll see the swell take another dip with even smaller waves expected to start Tuesday. In general, most of the shoreline can count on 2-ft waves with, again, the only exception to that being San Diego and between San Clemente and Oceanside where 3-ft heights may be possible. Winds look near calm on Tuesday morning with a range of periods between 10 and 16 seconds.

It shouldn't take long for the Southern Hemisphere swell to move in and dominate on Tuesday afternoon. Models are indicating that the swell could even arrive before noon, resulting in waves growing to pretty impressive heights by the evening. Right now, we can expect 3-ft waves for most of the day along south and southwest facing shorelines, including much of the coast between Oxnard and Santa Monica, and between Huntington Beach and Oceanside. By the evening we could start to see 4-ft waves try to creep in especially around Oceanside and San Clemente.

WEDNESDAY

The southwest swell grows overnight Tuesday to leave Wednesday with some very good-looking waves. The swell is expected to stay clean with periods around 16 seconds and waves heights approaching 5-ft in our best locations. The best spots, again, look to be Oceanside up to San Clemente and the coast just south of Oxnard. Long Beach, unfortunately, is going to miss out on this swell for the most part. Periods continue at 16 seconds with winds staying calm or light from the offshore direction at less than 5 mph.

The swell builds through the afternoon although the rate of growth won't be nearly as fast as on Tuesday. For this reason, the afternoon waves probably won't be too much different from the morning waves at 4-5 ft in our best spots, and 3-4 ft along other south facing shorelines. The best spots will continue to be San Clemente through Oceanside and the shore just south of Oxnard. Santa Monica looks like another promising location where 5-ft waves could be possible. Other than a light onshore wind in the evening, Wednesday looks like a beautiful surf day.

THURSDAY

The southwest swell peaks early Thursday morning, close to midnight, before slowly declining. We'll start Thursday morning off with similar wave sets as Wednesday evening making for another great surf opportunity. 4-ft waves are expected from Santa Monica to Oxnard with 4-5 ft waves expected from Encinitas up to Huntington Beach. Winds should stay light and offshore at about 5 mph in the morning with periods remaining around 14 seconds.

The swell backs off by a pretty decent amount as we progress into the afternoon. In fact, we should see about a foot drop in swell size from the morning through the evening so be sure to get your surfing in as early as possible. Periods stay nice at around 14 seconds and winds shouldn't be much of a problem with only a slight onshore breeze picking up in the evening. Speeds should stay around 5 mph.