Author: oldwaverider

Sorry, I had to do the long title for search engines.  I wasn’t gonna worry about it,  but my friends from out-of-town can find it now, or soon anyhow.

Okay,  Sunday morning;  As you could see by today,  that Cape Canaveral was almost totally blocked out by this NE swell.  It was 4 foot bigger on the face down by Satellite Beach.  We barely had chest high waves here, with an occasional head high drop.

Sunday morning at the pier, I revise now, to 3 to 4 foot overhead in the morning before 10,  maybe with bigger sets coming in.   The winds I believe will be NNW around 4 to 6 mph  by sometime after 3 Am, and should turn NW at first light at 3 to 4 mph until probably 9 Am.   Then they start going back NNW for a couple of hours and by noon, straight North.

At Johnson Ave,   I think we’ll see head high plus waves, with offshore winds at daybreak,  and I think we’ll have some decent shoulders to work with.   No A-frames,   but the close-outs today, we’re pretty easy to spot, and so you could wait for the shoulders.

If you head down south,  its looking NNW winds at best, so you’re looking at side shore winds with double overhead.

Should be around 56 degrees at first light,  and the water’s feels like 69 to 71,  so a spring suit should be good if you have acid-reflux,  otherwise you may want more warmth.

I haven’t been out in 5 weeks nursing my wounds (cracked rib and blown out back – I just want sympathy…)  ,  but I did try an hour today, and it felt okay,  but I kooked pretty bad 🙂

Have fun, I hope to see ya out at the pier,  if my body says go.

oldwaverider

Well,  for 4 or 5 days now,  this massive swell has been charting a 10 foot plus swell size.  This is the biggest swell I have seen or tracked since I moved here in 2004.

It is also the most perfect swell, as far as the largest body of water that the swell expands over, and how perfect the swell period animated map lays out.   Perfect even bands of green, yellow, etc.

Sunday morning looks like the day, that is the day for the most size and chance of clean form.

Sunday looks to have at least 6 feet over head,  my guess is we will see a lot of 6 foot overhead waves with some much bigger occasional sets.  The pier should just squeak by with the swell getting in full size.  I say that because this is a ENE or maybe NE swell,  and the pier is just at the edge of not getting blocked out for the size that Satellite beach and the Bahamas will be getting.  I bet the Bahamas will see 20 foot faces.  They are the only land until you get to Cape Hatteras, that has deep water close to shore, so Indicas can hold 20 foot there, plus being a point break is nice.

Saturday afternoon,  the swell peaks in size, but the winds will still be strong, maybe out of the North saturday, but the perfection of the size and period of the swell is Sunday morning at daybreak.

I believe Sunday morning, that a chance of NNW winds is very likely, in the 5 to 10 mph range, with 6  foot overhead coming in to the pier.  With bigger sets occasionally.  And if not NNW,  it should still be out of the North at less than 10 mph,  but say a prayer and then see what happens.

I’m gonna stick my neck out here,  even though this swell has a higher period than normal, meaning higher than 10 usually means lots of close-outs,  but because of the perfection of how this swell is shaped, and the angle of the swell, we could have some decent form to it.  It does help to have rocks or a jetty to hold the form a little, but we may be in for a nice surprise!

We will be crowded down (or up North here), because of the wind direction.

Make sure and have an extra leash in the car.

Wish I could be out there.  I’m still licking my wounds 🙂

Hopefully I’ll be able to get some pictures by confiscating a camera along the way.

oldwaverider

First I gotta say, the image you see is the animated period (when we say “seconds”) of the swell and not the swell chart.  By this thing being all green like that,  it is saying that a massive body of water in a couple thousand miles across is creating that.   I have never seen all green like that.   It’s like it is creating the perfect swell.  It looks to be a 14 plus period swell, but unlike the 17 second period of Hurricane Bill,  this swell we have coming is solid green across meaning it is way bigger than a hurricane in regards to the fetch of the weather body.  (“fetch”  is the distance traveled over water that winds are created from the storm)

Right now its showing double overhead as a minimum, we’ll se.

oldwaverider

I believe we will have some overhead waves Monday morning, with North winds in the 10 to 20 mph range, so Jetty Park, and the South side of the pier should work best.   Could be some really fun waves at the Port, maybe even clean, but size should be there.

Now, Tuesday morning now looks to be chest high up here by Canaveral with bigger sets, and NW winds in the 8 to 12 mph range, so get excited!  Yeah, the data can change,  but both Magic Seaweeds combined swell report (and magical programmers), along with our local weather channel both show offshore for Tuesday.

Okay,  in a way I was wrong about the swell coming in late Saturday and/or this morning.   It’s because the powerful offshore winds held or I should say literally pushed the swell away from the beach longer than I thought they would.

Ya’ll no I get long-winded, so for the quick report, you can check out http://www.cflsurf.com,  or for some more detail about what’s happening, then follow along with me here 🙂

Having 2 big storm systems like this,  just lots of strange swells colliding from the North and from the South can create confusion, and definitely not an exact science.  The Nor’easter from the North and  brother Tomas from the South.  I’m calling it Thomas, call it what you want 😉   Tomas, weakened a little quicker, and is heading away more easterly than it was, so I think that’s why we should see some offshore winds on Tuesday now.  But that’s also why the swell is dropping quicker , but Monday and Tuesday could be pretty darn fun !

Anyhow,  our big indicator is the swell that’s hitting the 120 mile buoy, and the direction of the winds from the 120, the 20 and nearshore.   Well,  the winds have finally turned NNE at the 120 , at the 20, and at the 1 mile (which is actually down right now ;(    ,  but at the 120,  the swell size jumped from 7 ft, at 7 second period,  up to 10.5 feet at 8 seconds as of 1 Pm today, and the seconds will be increasing from now thru Monday morning which means, groundswell by sometime Monday, and we should have a groundswell thru Wednesday morning,  and then a new swell rolling in late Wednesday and for the next few days.

And, looks like waves all week, with some huge waves coming next weekend.

We’ll try to keep ya updated on the winds for Monday morning and Tuesday morning.

Have a great Sunday, and take a look at the beach to see the swell rolling in late today.

Later,

oldwaverider (Art)

The winds are right this morning !  And, weather channel added about 3 more hours to the offshore winds, its showing in Satellite and Cocoa Beach to be NNW at 5 mph until 1 Pm and NW until 11 am before switching to NNW and then NNE at 2 PM.  (though this can be plus or minus, but at least now the channel added 3 hours of offshores)

At the end of the street (7 am) 2 hours before low tide, it didn’t look like to much I believe because of the tide.  Definitely long lines, and glassy with winds NW at 2 or 3 mph.

Should be chest high to possibly head high down south, (south by the PAFB)  so enjoy the warm water and strong groundswell!!

Wish I was out there…….

oldwaverider

Don’t goof around by getting out late Sunday morning 🙂    If you wait till 8 or 9 am to paddle out you’ll probably miss half the session.  You can get a 2 hour session in and still make church, hah, look at that! http://christlutherancapecanaveral.org/

The swell looks to be mostly out of the east now, a really erratic – on crack looking swell.   But, it looks like it will definitely be throwing a day and maybe a half  of ground swell at us, and……..now it looks like it could be offshore winds for a 3 hour window Sunday morning from daybreak till 9 or 10 Am, maybe.

Size,  waist-high around j-ave with some bigger sets.  Chest to head high down by Patrick.   Winds switch from 5 mph SSE before daybreak to NW at 2-3 mph at 9 am and back to NNE by 10 or 11 Am.  (According to weather channel).    The good thing is, those wind directions seem to hold true from Satellite Beach down to the Pier.

Don’t get out late at 9 Am or you may miss the show!  Bring a rash guard cause it may be a little cool, and for those of you with low body fat and young,  maybe bring a vest since it should be around 64 degrees in the morning, though the water temp is warm, at around 78 at the 1 mile buoy.

Should be some leftovers Monday, but the swell will be dropping fast in size throughout Sunday.

Have fun, wish I could be out there 😉

oldwaverider