Hooker

Saturday Classics.

After a Blackies surf I went for alittle recon north to see how the swell was filling in.  Came across a vintage board meet and pulled off to drool alittle.  Very bitchen eye candy, and the 70's single pins were my favorite.

Coming and Going

SunUp

SunDown

Another day on the books.

My new office on PCH lends me this view every night on the way home.  And, of course I usually tend to get the sunrises too.  Maybe we'll see some surf pics this weekend.

SSSssshhhhhhhhh

She's taking alittle nap right now.

The Lull'inator

You could have driven through the lot, and been thrown by the lulls in between sets yesterday.  But for those with the patience, it kinda paid off.  Steve Farwell showing that he can still park it on the nose.

Bad credit? Check my repair blog.

Daily Data Series Part 2

Ok, so you've visited the current wind data site, and need to know what the swell is doing.  I next move over to the NDBC site to see what's in the water.

Select the buoy closest to your home break, or where you might be traveling that day.  If you're in North OC, you will want to look at a couple different buoys this time of the year as we are in combo season.

This is the data that I typically pay attention to.  Wave height, dominant period, and direction are key ingredients to understanding what's going on in real time.  Water temp, always good to keep an eye on that as well.  Don't want to get caught wearing your springsuit and booties when we see an overnight drop in temps.

Keeping track of swell data (mentally or writing it down) will, over time, help you make good calls on where to go.

Another graph that I recommend is this swell size chart from Stormsurf .  This will help with understanding size difference on periods in relation to size on the buoy data.

So there ya go, these are the tools I use every morning before heading to the beach.  When there's not enough light to see what's happening on the cams, and you're pressed for time, take a minute to do alittle research on your own, instead of just flipping a coin and trying to get lucky.  Long range forecasting is a good indicator of what's coming, but what the swell does when it get's to YOUR beach is another story.  There isn't a surf forecast site out there that breaks down every swell to your specific spot, unless it's a popular/overpopulated break, in my opinion.