Friday, May 23, 2008

Surf for Memorial Day Weekend - Cleaning up

Looks like all three days this long weekend are going to be surf days.

The funky-chicken winds that have been blasting through the last few days are finally starting to back off and are expected to weaken even more as we head into the weekend. It won't be completely windless but most of the W-SW breezes will generally stay below 10 knots in the mornings and below 15 knots for the afternoon.

The only drawback is that the NW windswell and background S swell that have been generating all of the surf will be dropping fast over the next few days. Look for overhead+ stacked up surf to continue to show on Saturday but with smaller and smaller sets as we move throughout the day. By Sunday and Monday the NW facing breaks will be back to about shoulder high on sets.

The protected breaks will back off quite a bit as well...most of those areas will be in the waist-shoulder high+ range on Saturday and then hold around waist-chest high on Sunday and Monday off the mix of leftover NW energy and a weak new SW'er coming in from New Zealand.

It will be pretty cool and foggy along the coast over the weekend but just the fact that the howling winds have backed off should make it at least a little appealing for grabbing a session. I would keep an open mind about which spot you plan on surfing...you might find a little fun gem at breaks that have a bit more protection from the light southerly winds.

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