Month: October 2010

Hey it was fun at the end of the street from 8 to 9:30 am.  Easy paddle out, fairly clean shoulder high plus waves.   It was cleaner outside than shoreview, meaning when you paddled, ya didn’t keep hitting chop ripples.  It was actually reasonably clean.  Out for an hour or so.   2 or 3 really fun rides,  you just had a 10 minute wait or so per wave for a shoulder, crazy insane drops,  ate it 2 or 3 times, whatever 🙂

Thursday morning could be even better!!!  It should be much cleaner than this morning if the link (wind direction chart) below holds consistent like it did last night.

This morning when I checked da weather channel, and just now when I checked (2 PM) ,  its showing winds turn North at midnight tonight thru 10 am Thursday morn for Cocoa Beach, and Cape North till 7 Am,  and work their way down to 12 mph, maybe 15.  Check it out for yourself on the Cocoa Beach winds link: http://www.weather.com/outlook/recreation/outdoors/hourbyhour/USFL0089?begHour=2&begDay=280    So that means,  offshore for the cape and the pier!  (I should say, slightly offshore !)

Johnson Ave., North winds mean 4 degrees offshore, and at the cape, more like 9  or 10.    The pier probably 2 degrees, but plus the pier blocks.  I’m thinking chest high plus (at Johnson) and semi-glassy or clean with lots of texture in the morning.    Definitely wear a rash guard.  It will be chilly.  The water is still warm, but the breeze n air temp will be cool.

Should be a good sesh in the morning, but make sure and hit it 8ish so the winds are in your favor, they turn NE around 10 ish.   Plus the tide is perfect, high going low, easy paddle out, lots of power, and much cleaner when its high going low.

Hope you can head out.   It was just me and some other loner a couple hundred yards away this morn.

Later,

oldwaverider (Art)

Wednesday morning while high tide is going low, might be your best chance at riding some manageable big chop.

High tide is 6:47 Am,  so while it’s going low, from 8 to 10 may be some fun chop slop head high plus waves,  with a reasonable paddle out on a longboard.  After 10 ,  it will probably look like a washing machine..

The winds are showing around 15 mph N to NNE at daybreak, and increasing to over 20 mph as the morning goes on.

Jetty Park and the Pier are your best bet  for winds and ease of paddle out.

Saturday or Sunday may have some clean waves, but will just have to wait and see.

We’ll let ya know how Wednesday morning was after 9 or 10 Am.

oldwaverider

It still looks like the NNW winds at the 20 mile buoy seem to be holding much of the windswell offshore.  You can see it at the horizon if you will, but at the beach it remains small.

The 120 buoy is holding around 6 ft at 7 to 9 seconds.

I keep checking to see if more of the swell is gonna come as a Nor’easter or an east/southeast swell as I mentioned earlier on the 3rd.   With the St. Augustine 40 mile offshore buoy going from 5.2 ft at 9 seconds at 8 PM Sunday night down to 3.9 ft at 9 seconds at 8 Pm tonight it still seems our swell is more from the east than NE.  And with our 20 mile buoy staying at 5.0 to 5.9 feet from 7 to 9 second period, this also seems to support an east swell.

Full link to the eastern Atlantic moving swell chart with arrows pointing swell directions: http://magicseaweed.com/Florida-MSW-Surf-Charts/20/

What’s this mean.   I don’t know 🙂    I do know the 120 buoy will start increasing some time tonight or Tuesday during the day and that the switch to NNE winds  at the 20 mile buoy should start bringing the wind swell to our beachs.

So, enjoy the fall like weather, I had a nice and different beach run this morning down to Cherry Down park.  Decided to skip the pier run, and head North for a change.  Nice breeze hitting me in the face.   When I run tomorrow morning, I’ll have a better idea if any swell his hitting us yet.

Have a great night all.  

oldwaverider

It looks like we have a windswell coming (not a groundswell),  from the east/southeast.  We were getting a Nor’easter, but the moving swell chart http://magicseaweed.com/Florida-MSW-Surf-Charts/20/   says otherwise now.

The 120 mile buoy climbed from 4.5 feet at 8 seconds to 6.5 feet at 9 seconds from 5 am to 6 pm today (temporarily close to a ground swell but not quite).   So Monday looks like we should have some thigh to maybe waist high waves with 20 mph plus winds from the NNE,  which would seem to indicate a Nor’easter huh?   Tuesday should be building and show more size by the late afternoon.  Wednesday morning looks to be some head high waves with the same on winds and Thursday the same or maybe dropping a small amount on the wave size.

The distance and weather system over the body of water creating this swell is to inconsistent to create a fetch for a groundswell.   The period may increase for a few 4 to 6  hour time intervals up to 10 or more seconds, but not over a wide enough body of water to create a ground swell with long lines and wind that can come around offshore. (except maybe at the near end of the swell, we could get some offshores with the size smaller of course)

For a few definitions of swell terms, you can look here: http://magicseaweed.com/Wave-Fundementals-Article/323/

Hey, at least there will be some waves, and as Ross at CFLsurf.com likes to say,  if you plan on the worst conditions, for high wind and chop, then you won’t be dissappointed.

Later,

oldwaverider (Art)