Clay in a sweet barrel in Punta Mango, El Salvador. Photo provided by my buddy Rob in Newport Beach, Ca.
TS Maria update…How the Waves were today;The Cape and Cocoa Beach got blocked out today, big time. 😦
I surfed Lori Wilson Park, and it was fun for awhile, thigh to occasional waist high, glassy. Definitely less closeouts than the last 3 days.
O’ Club was solid chest high and there was some shoulder high sets according to a couple of friends that surfed there.
TS Maria is now following the familiar cane alley as the last few. Definitely not a reason to get complacent 🙂 (a natural alarmist thing maybe)
Wednesday appears to be the biggest day. The image here shows the model at Stormpulse.com with Maria East and slightly North of Jacksonville, 650 miles out as a Category 2. Based on that position, Wednesday morning could be the big day with offshore winds. The storm generally needs to be east of us and slightly North to have more Westerly than NW’ly winds. (Grammar and Spell check is not an option. These posts take an OCD person 45 minutes 🙂
Hurricane Maria, the Friday 5 PM 9-9-11, projected model position for this Wednesday. The arrow I drew, shows the hopeful position on Wednesday morning so the winds would be offshore. Image compliments of Stormpulse.com
Thursday could be the second , but smaller glassy day.
The storm is moving WNW at 16 mph, not that that is interesting data, but it is moving faster than Katia, so thus less days of glassy waves, but we’ll see.
Anyhow, I hope y’all got some of the best waves of your Florida surfing life. I got my best Florida ride at O’ Club Wednesday.
The photo is a guy named Clay, a friend of a friend Rob, who lives in Newport Beach, Ca. Punta Mango, El Salvador, I believe in 2009.
A nice waist high line in K-38 Mexico. My buddy Rob surfing in March of this year. A surf break that myself and a buddy Cliff surfed many years ago, camping on the Cliff's 150 feet above the beach.
The Waves Thursday at O’ Club kept trying to hit double overhead today, just like Wednesday, but only made it to the 3 foot overhead, with an occassional bigger set wave. I don’t think that it was as good as yesterday. The closeouts were a little more dominant, but because of the size, at least 100 yard rides were to be had, unlike the 1 and half to 2 football field rides that were for the taking if you waited 30 minutes for “That” wave on Wednesday at O’ Club.
Johnson Avenue was similar for closeouts and had some head high plus waves early, the Pier a little bigger. The considerable size difference we had both yesterday and today (Thursday) from the Cape on one end of the spectrum to Patrick and Satellite Beach allowed for the waves down South to hold up much longer for some really nice shoulders and some pretty intense power.
Katia is delivering it’s last real day of surf for us Friday. We should see waist-high at Canaveral , IF, it’s not blocked out by the Cape’s point sticking out into the Ocean. It ought to be chest to shoulder-high as you work your way toward Satellite Beach. The winds should be West switching to SW around noon or one, and then to SSW to onshore.
Maria looks to be sending us some swell Sunday thru Thursday, but keep in mind the models are still developing, and it is heading West so until it becomes a Cane, the models can diminish quite a bit.
Fun waves we’ve had huh, between Irene and Katia.
If you make it out Friday morning, have fun and take pictures and feel free to send them to me.
Tropical Storm Maria is still 2600 miles Southeast of us, but by Monday it will be quite close. Compliments of stormpulse.com
My apologies. I should have stuck to my original gut instinct, as I shared on last nights post/report, regarding the size. This swell that only hit 6 feet at 14 seconds at the 120 buoy created 10 foot plus solid faces this morning at O’ Club.
It was 3 to 4 foot overhead (on the major sets, with an ocassional, rogue wave too, maybe 1 foot bigger on the face) at O’ Club, probably a foot bigger at RC’s. Word was, it was closing out pretty bad in Satellite Beach, but O’ Club, if you let the closeouts roll by, epic form with no closeout was to be had.
If you tried to make a full bottom turn, short board or longboard, you got pounded. I learned fast. Take the drop and slam hard halfway down, and back up under the lip and there were plenty 150 to 200 yard rides to be had.YES, THAT’S WHAT I SAID. THE SET WAVES AROUND 11 AM, IF YOU LET THE CLOSEOUTS PASS BY, AND THERE WERE PERFECT WAVES ALL THE WAY TO THE BEACH. THE PADDLE OUT WAS PROBABLY 250 TO 300 YARDS, THUS THE 200 YARD RIDES. Lefts and Rights, incredible, perfect glass, light winds, and no crowds!
The first paddle out took 6 minutes. The 2nd was brutal, 18 minutes. The first session was the long rides. The 2nd was more rides but more dumpage, do to fatigue 🙂
Thursday,overhead down south again, PROBABLY THE SAME SIZE AS WEDNESDAY MORNING FOR HALF OF THE DAY ! WSW to noonish then SW 4 to 10 mph winds, glassy and mid-tide, high going low is the best time.
Friday, waist to shoulder high. (Cape verses Satellite) Glassy WNW to West to SW, 4 to 6 mph.
Sea Lice again...
Still some Sea Lice out there, so prepare for those big mosquito bites ;( Plus there is still Moon Jelly fish laying on the beach.
Tropical Storm Maria is about 2600 miles SouthEast of us and ought to be 650 miles east and a little south of Miami on Monday.
Nate is in the Gulf, and could cause some issues if it heads Northeast.
Enjoy epic Thursday!
Forgive my backing down on the original size mentioned last night.
Full size images below if you want to click on them and see full screen.
Maybe a 2nd chance at a barrel? Photo by Mike Melito, an old surf buddy. Hurricane Irene, the 2nd day. Pic 1
FRIDAY NITE UPDATE (from this original Thursday afternoon surf report book 😉 Wind swell coming in late Saturday with waist high size and onshore winds; nothing exciting but something ridable somewhere 🙂
Sunday, the same wind swell, small, persists until late afternoon, when the first dribble of Cane Katia starts sending in waves. Playalinda and Spanish House could have some nice chest high size and slight offshore winds (SSE to SE; S winds are 32 degrees offshore at Playalinda and 26 degrees at Spanish House). 2nd light to RC’s will have sideshore SSE to SE winds.
Monday and Tuesday will be growing from chest to overhead by Tuesday , right now looking onshore winds in the 15 to 20 range.
Wednesday and Thursday will be pushing the 2 to 4 foot plus overhead range, also with onshore winds, but………….Thursday and or Friday (or both days), could be the big and offshore wind days. So we will keep you updated on that mostly, once Tuesday and Wednesday night roll around when I can get more accurate wind data.
Oh, Katia is still a Cat 1 Hurricane, but it still shows to be a Cat 3 by Wednesday, and should be about 850 East of Daytona at that point, so if the wind sheer models hold, it should start aiming some Northward, and if the wind sheer models don’t hold, then start packing…………just kidding, but listen close to the weather.
Here endeth the Friday , Sept. 2nd update for surf coming our way. Below is my post from Thursday afternoon…
I just don’t know if the title of this post is quite long enough…
There’s a lot going on 😉
Katia went Hurricane Category 1 hurricane late last night or this morning. Should be a Cat 3 by Monday, and by Tuesday it will only be 1100 miles from us, though the general consensus is that an upper wind sheer with keep it diverted off our part of the coastline anyhow. As the general consensus goes. Still, like I mentioned the other day, consider doing your Boy Scout stuff like water, canned goods, extra cat and dog food, batteries, fans and if you really wanna get anal, some water purification tablets…okay, I’m slipping into Alarmist syndrome here, my bad 🙂
Before we get into Katia and forecasts, we have some Hurricane Irene pics here from Saturday (the day after the big day 🙂 down around Slater Lane, mid-morning chest high waves, pretty much perfection.
It did turn into some coverage. Mike Melito photographer. Hurricane Irene, glassy day two. Saturday
The photos were taken by a surf buddy and high school friend Mike Melito. (He also did my Hurricane Earl and Danielle pics last year)
It was head high down by Satellite Beach, but I couldn’t make it down there. In between in North Cocoa Beach (as shown in these pics it was still pretty sweet) But I did surf some incredibly fun waist to stomach high waves at Johnson Ave, so needless to say, I was happy.
Also, Ross at CFLsurf.com has an incredible array of photos from Irene at his site (Picasa Web gallery) , check him out too.
Nice waist to chest high left.
The 1st Friday of the month Friday Fest of Cape Canaveral is September 2nd, this Friday. The band Vilifi, whom I heard before is awesome, 3 piece band with incredible guitar player, drummer and bass. (Obviously, those would be the 3 instruments for a 3 piece band, but my point is, each musician is incredible 🙂 If the link takes long to load, then just click on Cape Canaverals city website, and go to the 7th menu link for Friday Fest.
Hard to tell if it would be a good longboard day 😉 Photos by Mike Melito.
It still appears that Katia will start throwing us some waves Sunday night after dark, with some waist to chest high waves building Monday, onshore winds. The swell may provide some huge stuff, may last for 3 to 5 days.
The models are showing some possible offshore winds on Tuesday, which I would imagine that has to do with the storm in the Gulf which may become a cane also, heading toward Houston, cause it’s too early for Katia to be going offshore.
In Summary, aside from a little wind swell we may have in the next couple days, Monday starts Katia, and Tuesday it should be about 1100 miles offshore. If it goes North with at least 600 miles off the coast we could have some killer waves by Wednesday or Thursday.
Waitin on a duck diver to get in a good place 🙂 Hurricane Irene , the day after photos by Mike Melito
We’ll keep ya posted. If you don’t have a long leash for your cat or dog, get one, and a cage, just in case. (what’s this guy so obsessed about pets for ?)
Hurricane Irene, Brevard County, photographer at Gulfster.com
Tropical Storm Katia on the way…….But I had to show a few more of the awesome Friday, Hurricane Irene pictures from Gulfster.com . Many of the pictures on their site are Satellite Beach, The Pier, and another spot I believe.
Tropical Storm Katia appears to be sending us waves on late Sunday or Monday, as it stands now, onshore winds bringing the storm in, in the 3 to 4 foot range. By Sunday, it looks to be about 1500 miles from us, as a Cat 2 or 3 Hurricane.
Tropical Storm Katia, headed straight our way, 60 mph winds, 20 mph. Possible hurricane by Wednesday some time. Sunday could place it about 1500 miles WSW of us. Compliments of Stormpulse.com
With the sole intention of being an alarmist, keep in your mind, preparation for a direct hit between us and Jacksonville. No one is saying this, just my thoughts. Consider looking at your Boy Scout list of Hurricane preparation items. Okay, here endeth the alarmist 😉 …Not! Katrina was 6 years ago in 2005. It’s like they’re related 🙂
Image 2 here of Hurricane Irene, Brevard County, photographer at Gulfster.com
We should have some more news on this puppy (Katia) by Wednesday night, or Thursday.
I’m waiting on some pics for Saturday, in the chest high range from Irene, by Slater Lane.
Oh, in case you didn’t hear it or see it in today’s Florida Today. Kelly Slater won the Tahiti Pro in huge waves meeting in the finals against Owen Wright.
Check out the killer slideshow at Magicseaweed.com . He was ranked 6th, after he skipped the tour in J-Bay (looked like 6 foot waves for that contest), and he caught the once in a lifetime swell in Fiji. 30 to 40 foot , tow in and paddle in. The same storm that they called the 50 year storm hitting Tasmania first, then Australia (thus the 50 year storm name) and on to Fiji and other places. That big wave surf, very similar to Teahupoo except longer rides than Teahupoo.
Don’t forget about the26th Annual NKF Surf Festival – Labor Day Weekend – Cocoa Beach – September 1-5, 2011. Read more about the Surf Festival here.
Later,
oldwaverider
Check out the board length to face size (yeah a little angled 🙂 in Image 3 here of Hurricane Irene, Brevard County, photographer at Gulfster.com Image 4, Hurricane Irene, Brevard County, photographer at Gulfster.comImage 5, Hurricane Irene, Brevard County, photographer at Gulfster.comImage 6, Hurricane Irene, Brevard County, photographer at Gulfster.comImage 7, Hurricane Irene, Brevard County, photographer at Gulfster.com
Sunday surf, nothing. There may be an hour or two of longboard ridable waves, but anything called a swell has left the 20 and 120 mile buoy already.
But we did have some really fun stuff. I will have a few pictures from Saturday mid-morning surf from Slater Lane break. Some waist and some chest high waves, perfect glass kinda stuff.
Also, I’ll be posting some of the big waves photos here in a day or so.
I will be a happy individual when I get my hands on an SLR, but for now, I am content with accumulating photos from friends and associates 🙂
I don’t see anything down the pipe; that TD 10 doesn’t seem to be strenghtening now, and a Disturbance below Cape Verde off of Africa, is an area of interest, and the cool thing is, it’s getting close, its only 3970 miles from Daytona ;(
Rest up, enjoy the talk about the great surf that you had, the nut that cut you off, the fact that you had the b_ _ _s to paddle into the big (for Florida) , waves that we had.
Today and last night, How the Waves were…And, the 4 picture sequence (not 5) I have here is from the awesome Photographers of Gulfster.com .
An early Satellite Beach overhead wave ;), Image 1 of 5 in a very large sequence set of photos. I have 4 more of this sequence shot by the awesome photographers of Gulfster.com
Saturday morning update. (This original post done Friday nite) The buoys just cleared our really fast, the 20 mile just dropped from 11 feet to 8, so we may only see waist high at the Cape and Chest high down south. I’ll do a visual by 6:30 AM. Maybe it held a little more, we’ll see. Below is Friday nites post…
The Jetty , Harbor break at 7 Pm to 8 Pm Thursday night when I watched it with 2 guys out, 12 to 15 foot faces, NNW winds almost perfect glass, but not quite, with nothing smaller on the set waves. But there was definitely a few larger rogue waves. I watched a number of 15 foot faces based on seeing the rider, out 400 yards, but quite visible.
Image 2 of a many image sequence, but just 5 here for now, from I believe Satellite Beach. By Gulfster.com
Those that were not there, and those not obsessed about watching the size of waves, might say otherwise. However myself another surfer, and one of the two guys that came in confirmed the size 🙂
Image 3 of a sequence. Gulfster.com photographer
Today, I surfed by the Jetty. Solid 8 to 10 foot faces 7 to 8:30 Am with some bigger rogue sets. Perfect glass with NW winds. Yesterdays post covered what we should hope to see. When the size dropped and I was tired, we went to Officers Club and it was solid 10 to 12 foot faces (double overhead on the sets) with maybe an larger set everyone once in a while. The winds were NW to WNW, and were totally blinding. At the Jetty, no issues with spray in the eyes.
Saturday, we should see chest high sets in the Cape, and shoulder high down by Satellite. West winds in the 12 to 18 mph range. Should be really fun and probably epic.
Sunday, I don’t see much, but perhaps some waist high waves will linger.
Image 4 of a 4 image sequence. Gulfster.com photographer
We have a TD 10 headed our way from Africa that may already be showing up on the swell models.
Sunday mid-morning photo in Satellite Beach, August 7 2011. Taken by a friend, Mike Melito
The last day of Emily was Sunday (4 great days, nothing huge but a few head high sets on the drop), and it was a great day in Satellite at RC’s and Hightowers ! I surfed the morning which was stomach high and perfect glass, but it kicked up to chest high as the tide brought in more water.
If you surfed Emily in Cocoa Beach or the Cape, you probably missed the best size because of the angle of the swell. Also, when the winds were mostly SSW, the only place to surf that is South of Minuteman Causeway, and for the size south of the Streets from 2nd light or maybe O Club and South. Great surf, 4 days of it!
This is the official Chasing Monsters trailer video. The link to the 2010 Pico Alto contest is below at the Chasing Monsters website. As shown today on Magicseaweed.comthe Pico Alto in Peru is on. Quote “the world’s top big wave crazies will compete at the Billabong Pico Alto 2011– Copa Burn”. If you want to see last year’s video on the Pico Alto 2010, check out the video at the ChasingMonsters.com website, and as of today it is the 4rth video to scroll down to.
Waves coming, maybe ! Upcoming low pressure system swell headed our way! The models show that it hits Wednesday and keeps rolling for 3 plus days. Don’t know when we will half offshore winds, nor am I 100% sure the swell will hit, but the models show a nice SE swell in the 3 to 4 foot range with a high period of 11 or 12 seconds, so it’s definitely ground swell.
Friday morning, August 12 2011, 3 Tropical Disturbances being tracked from Africa, headed our way, 2 of which have a 40% chance of becoming a Hurricane within 48 hours, compliments of Stormpulse.com
FRIDAY MORNING UPDATE OF YESTERDAYS POST ON TROPICAL DISTURBANCES! We have 2 each 40% Trop. Disturbances and one 20% that have a chance of becoming a Cyclone (Hurricane, yeah I know you know 🙂 , all three came from our normal storm birthing ground, that of the Cape Verde Islands off the coast of Africa. The image is compliments of Stormpulse.com my favorite hurricane tracker site.
We’ll keep ya posted.
NOTE: JOHNSON AVENUE SURFERS will be moving to a new server in the next month and the URL will be johnsonavenuesurfers.com instead of j-avenue-surfers.com (we were gonna keep it low key, but we wanna give it more exposure and reach)
Sunday morning, stomach to chest high and glassy down south with some bigger sets especially in Satellite, thigh to waist at the Cape. Winds should be 3 to 6 mph out of the SW and then West. Winds increasing thru the day to 10 to 15 mph with the swell dropping rapidly, especially by mid-afternoon. Get out before 7:30 while the winds are light and before the swell really starts to drop by 11 or 12.
How the Waves were on Thursday, chest high plus and glassy down south by Patrick and Satellite.
Stomach to almost chest high Friday and very glassy in Satellite but a little textured and a little chop North of Minuteman once the SSW winds started around 8. Really fun waves in Satellite, nice fast walls.
Saturday, light onshores, and solid waist to stomach high at Lori Wilson, once high tide hit at 1:30 it was really clean and fun long rides on long board and fun, short workable walls on short board.
Oh, Friday Fest in Cape Canaveral was awesome and so was the band Vilify. They had to be under 22 years all 3 of them and man, the Bass, Drummer and especially lead guitar were all awesome. They played metal, Pink Floyd, The Doors and their own original. And the food and booths of artists, etc were great.
Friday morning 7 AM swell size model from magicseaweed.com and Noah.
Before I mention what today was like, an 8:00 PM update for Friday mornings call I have down below from earlier today. The 120 buoy is hanging around 4 foot at 11 seconds which is good, and the moving swell model is showing that it ought to hit 5 to 6 foot at the 120 tonight, but the winds are blowing SSW out there , at least down from 11 to now 5 knots SSW, but that could keep a lot of the swell back. So it could drop even smaller on Friday than it was today but I still feel better than 50 % that we’ll have chest high waves down south Friday morning 🙂
The pier had solid waist high waves today, I surfed on Johnson which was knee-high maybe some bigger sets, mostly closeouts but it was worth getting wet. With the winds being SW at the Cape, that actually is sideshore to occasionally slight offshore winds for us, and definite offshore down south, so that’s why we had some bumpy texture here. When I went to the pier at 11 Am, the winds had just turned onshore, it was waist-high and glassy so probably a foot bigger down south though I haven’t heard back yet on that.
Friday still looks to be a foot bigger or should I say stomach to chest high down south with a wind change to SSW winds instead of the earlier models that said SW.The SSW winds look to only hold until 9 AM at best so get out early! The actual swell from Emily is still rolling in straight thru until Saturday morning. Take a look at the first image which shows the Friday incoming swell model with the arrow pointing to a lighter blue than the 2nd picture which was for this morning, so the swell should be a little bigger and stronger for Friday morning but only for early morning.
Thursday morning 7 AM swell size model from magicseaweed.com and Noah.
Saturday the swell size peaks at around 3.5 feet at 9 seconds at around daybreak still looks to be chest high plus down south with onshore winds all day maybe some shoulder high sets, with light onshores in the morning (2 to 4 mph SSE, and increasing onshores in the afternoon, right now I can only read until 1 Pm which shows 6 mph east.
Sunday I believe will have chest high plus waves down south with I suspect NW winds, but that I will confirm Friday sometime early evening. Sunday still looks to be the semi-epic day. Only a North wind break for Sunday, meaning only a surf break North of Minuteman Causeway.(From the Cape to Satellite we have a bay in the shape of a C with Minuteman being the bottom, so if you look at my Google Map chart, you will see why I say South Wind and North Wind breaks.)Follow this link and scroll down just below the 4 small surf pictures and you will see the Names of 5 to 10 breaks and whether they are in the North or South wind break area.
Anyhow, have fun Friday thru Sunday.
Oh, don’t forget about the Cape Canaveral Friday Fest, to support children in school plus our local vendors, artists and beer, wine providers 🙂
Johnson Avenue Surfers 