NPAC Wind Swell & Fading South

Only someone who is desperately wave deprived would have paddled out this mid-morning in the wind chopped, rip smeared close outs that were consistently drumming up against the shore. The words to that country song, "the girls all get prettier at closing time," kept circling through my brain. I surfed the GB1 for about 40 minutes, taking six waves and four wipeouts before throwing in the towel. I body surfed more successfully than board surfed.

It wasn't that there was no swell. A new wind swell with some decent numbers is starting to make landfall from the NPAC. The entire south swell event never really materialized for us anyway, so it was a complete non-starter. But today, the ever present onshore winds just blew a layer of chop on top of the lightly white capped offerings. I would either get hung up at the top and get pitched, or take off in the fat flat, only to have the wave jack up over the sandbar, and get pitched. The primary outcome of today's sesh was enjoying the opportunity to have my ass handed to me as a replacement for my head.

After the session I ran some errands and returned to the scene of the mugging to see if the perpetrator had repented. Actually she had, sorta. The winds had backed off a teeny bit, and the swell increased in size a tad. But it was still looking pretty junky. Maybe tomorrow's dawn patrol?

August 26, 2009 (W)

In: 1055
Out: 1135
AT= 56F
WT= 57.7F
Wx: Scattered low clouds with overcast burning off
Tide: 3' Rising to 3.4'
Wind: Light to semi moderate west, directly onshore
Sea Surface: Moderate wind chop with light white capping
6-0 Freeline (Mini-Simmons) Ghost Buster with twin glassed on keel fins

Bathymetry: Sand bars
Deep Water Swell and Wave Face Heights CDIP Archive
Buoy: NWS (Farshore*)
Time NDBC Data (approx.) CDIP Data
1000: 6.2 feet @ 12.9 NW (310 and 190) (2-3 ft. wave faces)
1100: 6.2 feet @ 12.9 NW (315 and 185) (2-3 ft. wave faces)
1200: 6.6 feet @ 12.9 NW (315 and 180) (2-4 ft. wave faces)
1300: 6.6 feet @ 13.8 WNW (305 and 190) (2-4 ft. wave faces)