New Year's Day

Terramar. January 1st. (Photo Luke Alcon)

We had fair weather in San Diego for the 31st of December; I spent the morning surfing at one of the local breaks, really glassy and chest high but a bit inconsistent... the lack of crowds made me stay for about 4 hours... shifting with the tide change...surfing the right-hander for the first 2 hours and the left on a bottoming tide for the rest of my session.

The day after I called Art; sometimes it's good to have someone to talk to during lulls. My morning check revealed waist to chest high surf but nothing spectacular. He reluctantly got out of bed and joined me to celebrate the new year in 55 water temps.Things turned out to be quite different at my favorite spot: what was supposed to be a mellow session became a 4-hour surf marathon to be listed in my top 5 sessions at CH!

We paddled out in complete solitude at 8 am... at this point I have Art trailing about 15 yards behind me when the first 2-wave set comes straight at us. I spun the board and dropped in one of the most beautiful waves I've ever seen: head high or so, a 70-yard glassy hollow wall that looked absolutely flawless. I slid into the pocket, raced the first 40 yards and, for a split second, got covered by the feathering lip; at that point I gained so much speed I came out of the tube too fast and I fell back in the attempt of cutting back from the top! Oh well, it happens!!!! But I guess Art missed the twin wave behind because as soon as I turn my head I see another freight train coming at me...2 strokes and I'm dropping in again to finish the final 30 yards of one of the most perfect wave-combos I could dream of!!!

After 20 minutes or so Larry, who I've not seen at this spot since last February, showed up: at this point we are 3 guys sharing head high waves with light Santa Ana conditions: for about 30 minutes it looked like Indo, except for the full-suits! I see Larry taking off on another perfect wall with 50 yards of open playground ahead! The wave doesn't close out and it looks insanely perfect: fast, hollow but workable and very long. At this point my wave count becomes a blur...I just have flashbacks of late take-offs, few close-outs, roller coaster rides and so forth....until we got out of the water around 12:30 pm.... completely exhausted! As far as equipment, the egg worked out well but a faster short-board would have been ideal.

The daily forecast from the web seemed to be quite accurate: "today (Tuesday) we have diminishing, steep angled NW swell along the coast with windy conditions in some spots. Surf drops further Wednesday as winds relax. NW swell is on the way for the end of the week, but where there'll be waves, there'll be weather as well. Shame too, since Sunday, a potentially wet and windy day, could -- according to this morning's model run -- see 15-foot face heights at west facing breaks.
Right now, the California Buoy is at 6 feet with 7-second periods. The San Francisco buoy is at 6 feet with 13-second periods, the Monterey buoy is at 7 feet with 13-second periods, the Cape San Martin buoy off the Central Coast is at 9 feet with 14-second periods, and the Pt. Conception buoy is at 9 feet with 15-second periods.
Most SoCal near-shore buoys are also showing southerly swell with seas running 3.1-4.2 feet with 20-second periods.
Overall, NW periods are averaging 14 seconds from an extremely steep 320 degrees.
Please note that this swell's long periods will no doubt make for disparity in size between breaks
the west energy ideally—especially those with excellent westerly exposure—will see bigger sets than the slower sloped, longboard-type breaks.
Additionally, this swell's long periods can produce deceiving lulls at times. Many waves may look surfable, while every now and then bigger waves could roll in. Adequate observation prior to a paddle-out is warranted.
In SoCal, the steep angle of the swell is making it tough to fill into most breaks. West facing breaks able to work the steep, 320-degree NW are seeing sets running waist to chest high."