Hot Weather Part 2 - Dual Sesh

Day started out waking up late and checking the buoys late (I didn't think the swell was going to show up until later in the day). 0600 farshore buoy data read 5.6 feet at 14.8 seconds WNW. What! Alright, I need to surf with the bro's anyway, I'm outta here.

Meet up, paddling out at 0720. Weak, tide too high, swell just not really doing it. MikeyB trunkin' it. (So what else is new? Da Polar Bear.) SUP for an hour, met Mo on his Kazuma, swapped boards (Thanks Mo!) Coffee after with the bro's, then they, off to work; me off to clean up the patio for the summer weather.

Weather: Hot (high temp at 11AM (81 degrees), offshores, awesome!

Second Sesh: Still-hot-air. Offshores whispering water warming. Trunked it in 2 mil spring suit, rash guard, boardshorts and hat. (John says I'm a pussy. I say, "Meow!") Met Greg on his 12' red Laird. He got the waves of the day at Sarges. Me and John move to GDubs after a while and get our best waves of the day. Insiders served up some multi-bowl lines.

It gets like this what? Six, seven days a year. I'll take all I can get! Water still cold. Can you say en espanol...la nina?
May 15, 2008 (Th)
In: 0720 and 1412
Out: 0830 and 1630
AT= 59 to 72; and 73 to 75 degrees
WT= 51 and 53 degrees at the nearshore buoy
Wx: Sunny and hot with very light high clouds
Tide: 3.3 Rising to3.5 feet; and 1.23 Rising to 2.53
Wind: Calm to NNW at 3 mph: and Calm to Southwest at 2-4 mph
Sea Surface: Glassy to light wind ripples
Buoy: NWS
Sporadic buoy data
0600: 5.6 feet @ 14.8 WNW
0700: 5.2 feet @ 14.8 WNW
0800: 5.2 feet @ 14.8 WNW
and
1400: 4.9 feet @ 13.8 WNW
1500: 4.9 feet @ 12.9 WNW
1600: 4.6 feet @ 13.8 WNW
10'4" Angulo SUP with Infinity paddle
Fin set-up: Thruster with Bluecoil 5.5" center fin and FCS Occy sides
Bathymetry: Rock reefs
CDIP: 3.8 feet at 8 seconds from 325 degrees and 1.6 feet at 10 seconds from 235 degrees
and 4.3 feet at 12 seconds from 320 degrees and 1.8 feet at 8 seconds from 215 degrees

Hot Weather - Part 1

It was still chilly enough this morning to fire up the pellet stove for a few hours. Even flipped the switch on the radiator in the office to take the chill off.

Athough a high thin layer of clouds is seeming to betray the forecast for 90 degree record breaking temps this day, a high pressure ridge is slowly moving over our CWA and the NWS is steadfast...it's gonna be hot.

Quikscat, MM5 and NOAA images all show the winds that are creating the next NW swell, scheduled to make landfall somewhere around Thurs/Friday and perhaps into the weekend as well. Pressure gradients are supposed to tighten creating offshore flow that could lead to fire weather very early this year. I'm still waiting to see if the algae will bloom and create a red tide if the sun induced hotter temps warm the ocean up dramatically.

Not much in the way of local windswell and I expect things will really calm down until the new swell fills in (if it fills in). But the wave prognosticating gurus seem to be feeling more confident that something is coming our way.

A down winder with the SCPU is on tap for Saturday unless the offshores and northwest swell spoil the usual northwesterlies that would make for the advent of the "down wind." May or may not happen. Damn! I guess we'll just have to surf!

Waves (Small); Windswell (Weak); Weather (Warming)

High pressure is starting to dominate the weather landscape. Even though the NWS predicted 81 degrees as today's high (in reallity the thermometer made it only to 72) this hot spell is in the air and we can feel it. Tomorrow and the next few days are going to be just like I like. Hot with no fog!

Surfed this afternoon on the incoming tide as I knew the windswell would be weak...and it was. I should have paddled out an hour earlier although I don't think it would have made that much of a difference. I suspect that the only reason we had the surfable waves that we did was the genesis of the nearshore wind.

I surfed inside Sarge's (with three other neophyte longboarders just sitting...sitting...sitting outside). I caught a ton of low energy waves on the inside. Gutless, mushed out insiders. Paddled over to GDubs against the southwest wind and back. Got a couple nice walls and nose rides on the Olohe outside Sarges in front of the rip-rap, but all in all it was a lackluster surf day. But at least it wasn't flat.
May 13, 2008 (Tu)
In: 1420
Out: 1535
AT= 72 to 66 degrees
WT= 50 degrees at the nearshore buoy
Wx: Clear and Sunny
Tide: 1.0 Rising to 2 feet
Wind: Southwest at 6 mph
Sea Surface: Wind ripples
Buoy: NWS
Sporadic buoy data
1300: 5.9 feet @ 10 WNW
1400: 5.9 feet @ 7.7 NW
1500: 4.9 feet @ 7.7 NW
10'4" Angulo SUP with Infinity paddle
Fin set-up: Thruster with Bluecoil 5.5" center fin and FCS Occy sides
Bathymetry: Rock reefs
CDIP: 3.3 feet at 10 seconds from 320 degrees and 1.2 feet at 14 seconds from 170 degrees

Wx Warming; Possible New NW Swell

It's a sure thing for warmer temps this coming week. The NWS is forecasting 80 and 90 degree days starting midweek and extending into the weekend. Local winds are kicking up decent windswell waves and there is surf. A big blow for this time of year in the NPAC is kicking up some waves over a relatively small fetch which if it pans out, might arrive by the end of the work week. The SPAC looks pretty quiet. Tides have cycled back to highs and low going high for the dp. Therefore, with the hot weather coming, I'm thinking of trunkin' it in some warm and sunny midday paddle/surf sessions.

This time last year I wasn't yet into SUPing. Therefore I blogged a long (11-day) flat spell. Hot weather also invaded May 2007 and helped to create a "red tide" before the high temps faded into memory. I wouldn't be surprised to see another similar scenario this year, except that water temps are much colder this year compared to last (48/49 degrees this year, 51/52 last year).

Nevertheless, this year and this week, there will be some fun SUP paddling sessions and waves in primo Spring weather. Maybe even a down winder on Saturday if I can borrow a bigger board.

Note: The farshore buoy didn't even deliver any wave data last night or this morning. I expect complete failure at some point in the future. Therefore reliance on the nearshore buoy will become a fact of life. This buoy reads much smaller wave height and period data but when read with the correct perspective still delivers the goods.