Nice SW Swell Continues Into The Weekend - SoCal

Best Bets

• Friday morning from Oceanside up to San Clemente will see the best waves and overall conditions. A 4-5 ft southwest ground swell is expected with 14 second periods and calm or light offshore winds.
• Friday afternoon and Saturday morning along the same southwest facing shoreline should continue to see a solid 3-4 ft southwest ground swell producing 3-4 ft waves. Periods look good at 13-14 seconds.
• The shoreline from Santa Monica to Oxnard looks like another good surf location from Friday morning through Saturday morning with waves ranging from 3-4 ft.
  
  

FRIDAY

Beautiful conditions are expected as we kick off this forecast period on Friday morning. The southwest swell from earlier in the week will continue to produce near head high waves in some of our best southwest facing shores. The largest waves should be located along the shoreline from Huntington Beach all the way south to Oceanside where 4-5 ft heights are expected. The coast from Malibu to Oxnard also looks pretty good with a swell from 3-4 ft in size. As mentioned in the overview, winds are going to stay near calm other than a weak offshore breeze in a couple of spots. Periods also look good at around 14 seconds for everyone!

Sadly, the near-perfect conditions in the morning won't last forever. The southwest swell looks like it's going to come down by about a foot as we progress from the morning into the afternoon. This means that instead of 4-5 ft waves between Oceanside and Huntington Beach, we'll see a swell closer to 3-4 ft in height. Even with this drop, it still looks like this will be a good surf opportunity. Periods look to be around 13 seconds and winds stay light for the afternoon, only picking up in the evening from the onshore direction.

SATURDAY

The southwest ground swell continues its slow decline as we head into Saturday. The morning looks like the last "great" surf opportunity until waves become too small or winds and weather become too problematic. The best spot to surf looks like the coast between Oceanside and San Clemente where 4 ft waves are still expected. The coast from Santa Monica up to Oxnard should see waves between 2-3 ft with all locations outside these two stretches seeing a smaller swell. Morning winds look near calm, similar to Friday, making for another decent time to surf.

By the afternoon, the swell will have dropped by about another foot or so. waves over 4 ft in size will become harder and harder to find with the last spots holding out being San Clemente. The overwhelming majority of the coast is expected to experience waves between 2-3 ft in size which is still a surfable size. However, with another onshore breeze expected in the late afternoon, its best to get your surfing in as early as possible on Saturday.

SUNDAY

The swell kind of bottoms out as far as wave size is concerned on Saturday evening. This means that we should wake up to a similar swell on Sunday morning as what we see on Saturday night. Our southwest facing shorelines should still see 2-3 ft waves for the most part, making for another solid surfing opportunity. The wind swell, mentioned in the overview, starts to creep in by the late morning providing for a very slight bump in wave size. Right now, winds look like they'll stay away from the coast so weather conditions should stay ideal for surfing.

The wind swell continues to move in, eventually surpassing the southwest ground swell in strength. However, the incoming swell looks pretty weak and I don't think we should expect to see anything over 3 ft in size. Surprisingly, periods stay good through Sunday at around 14-16 seconds as the swell moves in. It's not until Monday when winds and periods start to turn for the worse.