Fun Combo Swell Knocking on SoCal's Door – Surfline

A fun combo of swells is approaching Southern California and we’ll have a nice start to the workweek. While it’s nowhere near a major swell, we’ll get our first sip of something beyond windswell from the North Pacific Monday and Tuesday. This little NW pulse will come from a small but punchy little low just off the coast this weekend, which will also bring widespread precipitation to Central and Northern California Sunday and Monday.

Watch Live:
Pacific Beach | Oceanside | San Onofre | Trestles
The Wedge | Newport Jetties | HB Pier | El Porto
Malibu | C Street | Morro Bay | Steamer Lane

It will still be a shorter period swell, with most of the energy in the 9-to-12-second period band — but will offer a slight stepup from the very short period energy we’ve seen of late. Direction is decent as well, with some energy in the 290-degree-ish range, meaning we’ll see a bit of surf pulse into Southern California coming up through the afternoon on Monday. There will be decent size left Tuesday morning – especially in Orange County and San Diego – before dropping off through the afternoon.

Nice, early season low dropping south off the California coast Saturday afternoon.

The NW swell will join a larger and more powerful – albeit less consistent – mix of SSW swells. As we detailed last week, the South Pacific has been quite active of late, and we’ll see a number of overlapping southerly swells through the end of the month. A fun round of SSW swell coincides with the modest NW swell Monday-Tuesday and we should see some nice peaks at the combo beachbreaks as the two swells occasionally cross up. North Orange County will be the primary beneficiary of the combo, but look for some peaks in San Diego, the South Bay and Ventura as well.

Forecasts:
South San Diego | North San Diego | South Orange County | North Orange County
South Los Angeles | North Los Angeles | Ventura
San Luis Obispo County | Santa Cruz | San Francisco

Another bit of good news is that the south wind that has plagued Orange County the past few days will take a breather on Monday and Tuesday. In its place will be wind ranging from light and variable to weakly offshore in the early mornings, when conditions look cleanest. Onshore W wind will build for the mid to later mornings and especially the afternoons for increased bump. Best bet is to get on it early or find breaks that offer at least some W wind protection for the PM session.