Small Wind Swell & Very Small South

Things have been in the doldrums around here for a while. The coastal weather has been foggy and cold for the most part, with daytime temps averaging below normal for much of the last month. Adding insult to all this Summer injury, the Lockheed Fire has smoked us out like weenies in the barbecue. Then we were supposed to get some much acclaimed south swell, nada. The farshore buoy showed 6-7 ft. south swell waves at 17 seconds, but it wasn't getting in. So we've been taking our best shots with nearshore wind swell and whatever dribbles in from the south...not much.

In the last two weeks I've spent more energy walking the dog than surfing. I haven't been wanting to be outside at all, much less surf, in the smoked out conditions. So I've been on a self enforced surfing exile. I coulda road tripped, maybe I should have, there was too much other stuff going on though, so here I stayed. But today I got a few small, inconsistent lefts at the local beachie.

The surf was 2-3 ft. at best and really inconsistent. I surfed for an hour on the Ghost Buster 1. In that hour I got five waves on six sets (I missed every wave in the first set) and did a lot of sitting around. The good thing is that four out of the five lefts I got were really good rides. Fast and glassy with dredging end sections. So it wasn't all in vain. It was cold and water temps (while reputed to be at around 58F) felt more like 54. My feet were red and numb at the 45 minute mark. I guess it's back into the booties.

Looks like the NPAC is starting to wake up, we're sure not seeing anything from the south. Ghost Buster 2 will be ready sometime this week. Everybody knows that you'll surf anything when you get a new board.

August 24, 2009 (M)

In: 0815
Out: 0915
AT= 54.8F
WT= 58.6F
Wx: Marine inversion low clouds and overcast with misty drizzle
Tide: .6' Rising to 1.1'
Wind: Calm to light south easterlies
Sea Surface: Glassy with some light wind ripples and chop
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
0700: 7.2 feet @ 7.7 NW (310 and 180) (1-3 ft. wave faces)
0800: 7.2 feet @ 9.1 NW (305 and 180) (1-3 ft. wave faces)
0900: 6.6 feet @ 7.7 NW (310 and 185) (1-3 ft. wave faces)
1000: 6.9 feet @ 8.3 NW (315 and 185) (1-3 ft. wave faces)