It's shaping up to be a pretty solid weekend of surfing as a large Southern Hemisphere swell makes its way through on Wednesday and Thursday. The swell peaks on Thursday, but lingers through at least Sunday or possibly even Monday, giving us several days of beautiful surf across southwest facing shorelines. Friday looks fantastic as waves should still be close to 4-5 ft in our best spots.
The southwest swell drops as we head into Saturday and Sunday morning with a wind swell eventually filling in for Sunday afternoon. The wind swell doesn't appear to be too impressive at this time with waves only peaking at around 3 ft. With this being the only other swell expected this weekend, I think we confidently say that Friday is going to be our best day for surfing.
Not only our waves looking good on Friday, but the weather also looks like it's going to cooperate. Winds should be near calm throughout the morning and early afternoon before a slight onshore breeze develops in the evening as temperatures heat up. Speaking of temperatures, areas further inland 100 degrees especially in the Colorado and Mojave Deserts. It won't get quite that warm near the shore, with highs expected to top out at just under 70 degrees this weekend.
Winds stay relatively light through the rest of the weekend other than the usual evening onshore breeze. Thankfully, the winds associate with the swell on Sunday should, for the most part, stay far off the coast. We could see winds try to creep in early next week although models aren't really picking up on that right now. Regardless, winds through the weekend look solid and the forecast is expected to stay dry until at least next Wednesday!
Best Bets
- Friday morning from Oceanside up to San Clemente will see the best waves and overall conditions. A 4-5 ft southwest ground swell is expected with 14 second periods and calm or light offshore winds.
- Friday afternoon and Saturday morning along the same southwest facing shoreline should continue to see a solid 3-4 ft southwest ground swell producing 3-4 ft waves. Periods look good at 13-14 seconds.
- The shoreline from Santa Monica to Oxnard looks like another good surf location from Friday morning through Saturday morning with waves ranging from 3-4 ft.
FRIDAY
Beautiful conditions are expected as we kick off this forecast period on Friday morning. The southwest swell from earlier in the week will continue to produce near head high waves in some of our best southwest facing shores. The largest waves should be located along the shoreline from Huntington Beach all the way south to Oceanside where 4-5 ft heights are expected. The coast from Malibu to Oxnard also looks pretty good with a swell from 3-4 ft in size. As mentioned in the overview, winds are going to stay near calm other than a weak offshore breeze in a couple of spots. Periods also look good at around 14 seconds for everyone!
Sadly, the near-perfect conditions in the morning won't last forever. The southwest swell looks like it's going to come down by about a foot as we progress from the morning into the afternoon. This means that instead of 4-5 ft waves between Oceanside and Huntington Beach, we'll see a swell closer to 3-4 ft in height. Even with this drop, it still looks like this will be a good surf opportunity. Periods look to be around 13 seconds and winds stay light for the afternoon, only picking up in the evening from the onshore direction.
SATURDAY
The southwest ground swell continues its slow decline as we head into Saturday. The morning looks like the last "great" surf opportunity until waves become too small or winds and weather become too problematic. The best spot to surf looks like the coast between Oceanside and San Clemente where 4 ft waves are still expected. The coast from Santa Monica up to Oxnard should see waves between 2-3 ft with all locations outside these two stretches seeing a smaller swell. Morning winds look near calm, similar to Friday, making for another decent time to surf.
By the afternoon, the swell will have dropped by about another foot or so. waves over 4 ft in size will become harder and harder to find with the last spots holding out being San Clemente. The overwhelming majority of the coast is expected to experience waves between 2-3 ft in size which is still a surfable size. However, with another onshore breeze expected in the late afternoon, its best to get your surfing in as early as possible on Saturday.
SUNDAY
The swell kind of bottoms out as far as wave size is concerned on Saturday evening. This means that we should wake up to a similar swell on Sunday morning as what we see on Saturday night. Our southwest facing shorelines should still see 2-3 ft waves for the most part, making for another solid surfing opportunity. The wind swell, mentioned in the overview, starts to creep in by the late morning providing for a very slight bump in wave size. Right now, winds look like they'll stay away from the coast so weather conditions should stay ideal for surfing.
The wind swell continues to move in, eventually surpassing the southwest ground swell in strength. However, the incoming swell looks pretty weak and I don't think we should expect to see anything over 3 ft in size. Surprisingly, periods stay good through Sunday at around 14-16 seconds as the swell moves in. It's not until Monday when winds and periods start to turn for the worse.
More must-reads: