Hello and hope everyone had a good spring break! This week we have a couple mixed swells heading our way, with the biggest day projected to be Friday. Although spring break wasn’t too bad, this coming week is likely to bring even more size to North County beaches.

Where are these waves coming from? Although the swells are mixed (meaning they are coming from all directions) it appears that a storm heading our way from the Japan area is redirecting all the different swells towards the California coast. In addition to the storm, spring conditions are starting to affect the daily waves here in California. Solspot.com supports the idea that air temperature changes and water temperature changes affect pressure and winds which can generally work against the “rideability” of waves. To avoid these effects hit the water before the sun’s heat does, and in addition you’ll miss the mid-morning winds as well.

Suggestions: In addition to heading out early, I would recommend trying a new spot this week. Mixed swells can be really hard to predict, and on top of that the main energy is coming from the Japan area, which is pretty dead-on west from us here. That means that waves will have a tendency to close-out (break all at once, not offering a shoulder either way) while offering a right or left ride here or there.

Tip: When paddling for a wave, it is imperative to give it your all to get into the wave with speed. If you watched the small wave lesson video from last week, they touched on this idea; paddle until you are actually starting to drop down the wave. This is important in bigger and closing-out waves because you want to get down the wave and starting to maneuver before the wave actually breaks. If you don’t paddle  hard enough, it can result in being hung up in the lip of the breaking wave, giving you a free toss down the face of the wave. Some call this “going over the falls.”