Tiny ones at the ‘con

Posted on October 21st, 2009 in Postcard.

Hello Friends,
Just another little postcard for ya from sunny southern California. Sounds like our weather’s not dissimilar to Sydney’s. “Surf” seems a pretty close match as well. A couple pals and I would not be put off, so we grabbed longboards and headed down to Rincon. Only three people in the water when we got there – for very good reason. Sets were struggling to get into the knee high range. But, as with places like the Pass, even when it’s really small, you can catch and ride them for a really long way. I reckon the critical part on my average wave was a zone about 10cm from top to bottom. If you could set the rail in there, your plank would just slide along smoothly. Turn off the line even slightly and you’d be sinking out or getting caught behind.

Water was really warm for here. Probably around the 18-20C mark and air temps were around 25. It was the first time I’ve been on a mal in awhile and it was a hoot. Anyway, here are a few snaps…

heat is on in southern California

Posted on October 18th, 2009 in California, Postcard, Santa Barbara.

Hello Friends,

Looks as though Sydney should have southerly conditions this morning, at 0545 there was 10-15kt of south wind and the swell was an into the useful range 2 metres at 9 seconds apart from the south. Semi-protected south corners ought to have at least something rideable. Should clear up as the day goes along and the wind is set to swing through the easterly quarters to the NE this afternoon late.

Looks as though this is as big as it gets for then next week. The models are showing a very brief long period pulse around Tuesday, so you never know, it might get interesting for a few hours at least…

A morning shower or two, chiefly near the coast. Fine, partly cloudy
afternoon. Light to moderate southwest winds tending southeast, then
northeast in the evening.
Sydney Coastal Waters, Broken Bay to Port Hacking and 60nm seawards:
Sunday until midnight: Wind: SW/SE 10/15 knots, tending E/NE 5/10 knots in the evening.Sea: about 1 metre. Swell: S/SE 1.5 metres.
Monday: Wind: NW to 10 knots, tending NE 10/15 knots in the afternoon.Sea: to 1 metre. Swell: S/SE 1 to 1.5 metres.
Tuesday: Wind: NW/NE 10 knots, freshening to 15/20 knots from NE during afternoon.

Straight outta SoCal
Got some fun little west swell waves at Pitas yesterday. As the tide dropped, the top of the kilometre long right point started to fire up with some zippery waist to chest high plus energy. I personally scored a number of 200+ metre rides and I saw quite a few that were up to twice as far. Not super crowded either. The weird thing is that although it’s now well into autumn, the temperatures are close to the height of summer. At some places it was up to 38 yesterday.

Here’s a snap I took from the water…

went surfin’

Posted on October 16th, 2009 in Postcard.

Hello Friends,

Oh, that MHL buoy doesn’t look too flash. Primary swell direction is showing as SSW. Must be heading off to NZ… Could be a little something on offer for the Saturday early risers though – if… if the swell goes back to the south that is…

Sydney Coastal Waters, Broken Bay to Port Hacking and 60nm seawards:
Friday until midnight: Wind: W/SW 20/25 knots Sea: 1.5 to 2 metres.Swell: S’ly 1.5 to 2 metres.
Saturday: Wind: S/SW 15/20 knots reaching 20/25 knots offshore.Sea: 1.5 to 2 metres.Swell: S’ly about 1.5 metres.
Sunday: Wind: S/SE 10/15 knots, tending E/NE.

Here in Southern California we got a little pulse of west swell along with sunny skies today. My pal Tim and I jumped in the water at a spot called Pitas point (about 10 km south of Rincon) and pretty much had a stretch of this very long right hander to ourselves. Nothing spectacular, but there were a few chest high peelers that ran for a couple hundred metres. And the water was quite pleasant (around the 18 mark I’d guess). After surfing we went and got some fine burritos at a little hole in the wall place in Ventura – muy bien amigos!

On the way home I drove up north of Santa Barbara (actually west) to have a look at some spots. El Capitan State Park features a perfect, zippery right point. It’s one of those not very often spots, and the waves it had today were sorta marginal, but there were a fair number of folks on them.

little swell makes itself felt… in SoCal…

Posted on October 15th, 2009 in Postcard, Santa Barbara.

In the past 24 hours Santa Barbara has had about 20% of its annual rainfall. And the water really looks like it at Campus Point to the west of Santa Barbara. But there are some short period looking west swell waves getting in. They’re really slow and sluggish looking for the most part, but every now and then a couple of waves catch up and sort of get some energy happening for a second or two. Not super crowded in the water, but then again, it could hardly look more suss.

Rainy days

Posted on October 15th, 2009 in Postcard.

Hello Friends,
Looks as though early risers will find a Thursday morning of marginal quality in Sydney. It’s still dark as I write this and the winds are relatively light out of the NW. Swell is sputtering along at about a metre from the south east with a weak 7 second average period. There’s nothing on the buoy data to suggest it will improve much by the time it gets light along the beaches of Sydney.

Wind is set to blow hard from the west today and that will not help the already tiny conditions. Tomorrow doesn’t look a heckuva lot better on the models, but on Saturday there just might be something at protected south spots that will be vaguely tempting for the weekend warriors…

Sydney Coastal Waters, Broken Bay to Port Hacking and 60nm seawards:
Strong Wind Warning.
Wednesday until midnight: Wind: W’ly 25/33 knots.Sea: 2 to 3 metres. Swell: E/NE about 1 metre. Chance isolated thunderstorms.
Thursday: Wind: W/SW 20/30 knots.Sea: 2 to 3 metres. Swell: S 1 to 1.5 metres.
Friday: Wind: S/SW 15/25 knots.
Saturday: Wind: SW/SE 10/20 knots.

Meanwhile, here in SoCal you’re not missing much. A warm storm blew in yesterday (from the SE which is quite unusual) and has dumped a fair amount of rain on the place. The ocean is trying to consolidate into something sort of surfable, but I’d say it’ll be another 24 hours before I’m tempted. Outlook is for small to very small conditions though, so I’d say anything above waist high will be a gift.

Go well with your plans!

In soCal

Posted on October 14th, 2009 in Postcard.

Hello Friends,
Back from a trip to the high desert of California. Apparently I missed no waves.

Sydney for Weds is looking like a case of desperate conditions for desperates only. Swell’s down around the one metre mark at about 9 seconds from the SE. From over the horizon I’m guessing knee to waist high at exposed spots – before the wind blows it flat.

Outlook is for smallness until the weekend when, with luck, we might get a little pulse happening in Sydney.

What the Bureau says
tides: L@1030, H@1650
Wednesday until midnight: Wind: W/NW 15/25 knots, increasing to 25/33 knots during the morning.Sea: rising to 2 to 3 metres. Swell: E/NE about 1 metre.
Thursday: Wind: W/SW 20/30 knots.Sea: 2 to 3 metres. Swell: S 1 to 1.5 metres.
Friday: Wind: SW/S 15/25 knots.
Chance of a shower around the middle of the day, otherwise fine with
lengthy sunny periods. West to northwest winds becoming strong and
gusty.

Got a couple

shots to share from the desert…

Postcard from CA

Posted on October 8th, 2009 in California, Postcard.

Hello Friends,

Thought I’d drop a line from the other side of the planet. Looks like conditions in Sydney are less than lovely this morning with SSW’ly wind hammering along at 20-40 kts and a thunderous 5 metre south swell (9 metres out at sea). Yikes! From the look of the WRL cam at Flight Deck, the swell’s not too big and it’s reasonably protected (or was at 0600) from the wind. But the open stretches are doubtless giant and windblown.

The annoying thing is it looks as though the swell will keep pushing along at substantial size through Saturday, but the wind will stay pretty strong from the south. Grrr.

Of course you could be in southern California where we’re looking at a fading little south swell. It was too small to tempt anyone into the water from about Ventura north to Santa Barbara (it also drops to near flat in SB). I grabbed a rough and ready snapshot as we flew past Rincon. There might possibly have been a little waist high set thing out at Indicator (very top of the point which can sometimes offer a fun left in south swell), but in at the cove it was too small for even the mals or SUPs to turn out. A super high tide wasn’t helping much.

Have a great day, wherever you may find yourself!

Windy & south swell… at Huntington

Posted on October 7th, 2009 in California, Postcard.

Hello Friends,
Your somewhat jetlagged but otherwise intact correspondent can report that it was probably okay for the early at Huntington Beach today. Unfortunately, by the time I got anywhere near the joint, the usual onshores were working their malevolent magic on a nicely liney south swell that appeared to be in the chest to head high range. Only people in the water were kiteboarding because it was just so chewed up by the wind. Weather is fine and sunny with a high around the 20 mark.

See? It could almost be a description of Sydney…

Well, except for the fact that there seems to be no real hope of swell here for the nexts week, but it should be ramping up in Sydney. Quality is likely to be an issue though as the wind will be 20 to 40kts tomorrow and through Thr.

Have a good one and I’ll try to file again soon.

Banff postcard

Posted on August 21st, 2009 in Postcard.

Reporter PB sent a bunch of snaps from his inland adventures in Canada, including this snap from lovely Banff. How’s the weather??

Our man in San Francisco

Posted on August 11th, 2009 in Postcard.

A few postcards this morning from the other side of the planet. Looks like PB’s having good d weather in San Francisco. Waves don’t look too big though!