Blown out, victory-at-sea conditions have been hitting our beaches for a few days now. I went saturday and Sunday on Palm Beach and surfed some super fast pounding chop. It was fun, but a lot of work and a lot of punishment.
Sunday seemed a little better. Surprisingly decent lines if you could make the drop. Fast and powerful made for some great slashes and carves before you got pummeled. Here are some pics of Sunday, around high tide.
(Saw some brave souls getting shacked)
(and then there were those that weren't lucky enough to make the drops)
(No more sand!)
(Someone trying to get out at the wrong place)
The FORECAST
If you haven't gotten your fill, don't worry...there's more in the forecast for Monday and Tuesday. Hurricane Ida stays a gulf coast storm and won't directly give us any swell in its current tropical state. I say it that way because it may merge with a cold front and bomb out into a HUGE low off hatteras by the end of the week. See photo to the right!
Before that happens though expect the wind to veer a bit to the ESE Monday. I was thinking of driving across the state to score some hurricane swell Monday at Venice jetty but I'm too old to drive 3-4hrs and get skunked. So I'll stay here and surf some junky windchop. Maybe I can find a manageable spot somewhere.
MONDAY: ESE wind around 30kts. blown out mega-chop. find someplace protected if you can. head high plus.
TUESDAY: Wind veers even more to the SE and maybe even south and slows down to 15-20. Seas calm down a bit and surf gets more manageable. Chest high fast windchop lines. Could be fun.
WEDNESDAY: a little tricky. wind will turn to the south, then all the way around to the North/Northwest as a cold front passes. Tough to tell if there will be anything left to groom. worth a check but windchop usually dies out pretty quickly once the wind drops.
THURSDAY: Longer period north Swell fills in throughout the day, wind picks up out of the north. Could be pretty good south of ocean reef park. Probably blown-out north of there thanks to the north wind. Swell should push all the way down to south county. Chest-head high - palm beach, waist to chest south but cleaner.
FRIDAY: Looks pretty promising with offshore winds throughout the day. NNW winds still gusty though. Solid chest high plus north groundswell. Head high sets at standout spots.
THE WEEKEND is interesting and uncertain. Some of the models want to blow up the remnants of Ida into a huge low off the cost and sink in south. If this is the case look for a HUGE northeast swell to hit up and down the coast. Wind will be north so it shouldn't be terribly blown out. if it works out like the GFS model is predicting now, this will be some swell, probably tearing up beaches and anything structure close to it. We'll be talking double overhead long period bombs thumping in. Stay tuned to see if this really pans out though. Way too far in advance to pin it down yet. Just in case though.... get out there and get some practice on this mega-chop 'cause you'll need it by the weekend!
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James Wieland
Meteorologist/
Surf Forecaster
WPTV HD / WPTV.com
News Channel 5
West Palm Beach/
Treasure Coast
http://wptv.com/surfing -----------------------------------
