Big swell coming in a few days!!

eathabs

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Jan 11, 2005
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Head up to Half Moon Bay. Mavericks should be loaded with people as the breaks should be better than Thanksgiving day.

Good luck!!

habs
 

Tom_in_CA

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Mar 23, 2007
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Hey bigp2,

Here is my thoughts on this incoming system, cut, pasted & edited a bit, from what I wrote on the Kinzli CA specific forum:

Depending on what forecast site you look at, it's somewhere between 9 ft. on some sites, to 15 to 18 ft. on others. The discrepancy I think is whether you/they "combine" the "mixed" swells for the sum total or not. For example: If the swells are from the NW at 9 to 11 ft, and from the SW at 3 to 4 foot (swells starting from 2 different points out in the pacifici ocean), the combined added height between those, is 12 to 15 ft. Or if you are citing only the larger of the 2 swells, you would say just "9 to 11".

For example, look at this link of a frozen moment of time on Monterey Bay, and notice it lists the "N. Pac." and "S. Pac." swell separately.

http://cdip.ucsd.edu/?nav=recent&sub=nowcast&units=metric&tz=UTC&pub=public&xitem=monterey

I would presume that if they are counter to each other they would work against each other, and lessen their effect for when they reach the beach? For example, a very northerly swell [over 310*] and a very southerly swell [less than 210*] would simply negate each other? But not for boaters off-shore, where the twain meet, where it's chop either way. But for on-shore at the beach, [for surfers or md'rs] maybe they prefer when the swells has a predominant direction? All I know is, when this happens, some sites give the predominant swell only, and others give the net sum of the two. Another factor of measurement, is some sites look at the wave face height, which I believe is when you factor in the on-shore winds (if there are any on the particular day/time of measurement). So sometimes "swells" are given as one measurement, but "waves" are a different measurement.

Anyhow, this one coming in tomorrow looks wimpy (less than 15 ft., which is wimpy from W or NW, but perhaps not wimpy when coming from the S or SW) but will depend on on-shore winds that can "help" it maybe. It also looks pretty westerly (280*-ish), as opposed to the NW ones that have been worked on our lower monterey bay beaches a few times in Nov. So it may not liven up those beaches, and instead, we'll have to look at west or SW facing beaches this time.

The tides don't get high enough for my blood till Thursday. So on Thursday, I'll be checking the buoy reports, winds, etc....
 

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