Flat, Flatter, Flattest: Where Are The Waves?

It’s been weeks since Carlsbadistan has had any good surf. And the natives are getting restless. “Bro, it is the worst it’s ever been, and I’ve lived here 20 years,” said one surfer this morning as he forlornly scanned the horizon for the smallest hint of a swell.

At Knockout Pizza the mood was no better. A quick “how’s it going” to the guy at the counter was returned with a short, “Well, there’s no surf.” We mentioned that at least the weather was nice and he said, “I don’t care about the weather.” And that seems to be the mood of most surfers in Carlsbadistan.

At Witt’s Carlsbad Pipelines surf shop the mood was a little better. They’ve hung a sign out front promising waves: “Swell Coming” it says. And they’re right if you believe the wave forecasters at Surfline.com.

A trough of low pressure initially developed in the Western Pacific, between the Philippines and Japan late last week. This area of low pressure pulled up an exceptional amount of tropical moisture from the area around the Philippines, which really helped it intensify while it grew in size this past weekend. The Quikscat satellite recorded 40-50 knots of wind over a large fetch, aimed well at both Hawaii and California during that time. Long-period swell from this component of the storm will slam Hawaii Wednesday afternoon and into Thursday, with a smaller version of that surf reaching the West Coast Friday and Saturday.

It’s nice to read, but we’re not getting even a hint of it here. Maybe tomorrow, huh?

You know it’s bad when then the only people out at Cherry Street is the Tamarack SUPer club.