Birthday Party Wave (Linda Mar)

Emily and Max, ready to paddle out

The weather forecast was wrong, oh so wrong. And that's a good thing. My birthday dawned sunny and nearly windless, instead of south windy, overcast and maybe raining. The cams also showed flat surf, but my faith in predictions that swell was on the way was not as misplaced as my belief in the weather forecast. Lake Linda Mar had roused by noon, offering up to chest-high waves in the middle of the beach where Emily and Max paddled out with me.

I regretted that Scott had talked me into a birthday mimosa at lunch, because my timing was off and kooked up the first few waves I caught. Soon enough it wore off, and I got a few nice rides, including a right that flattened out and reformed into a left as I navigated around a guy paddling out. Fun! I took it nearly to the beach, where J-Bird was waving from dry sand. She'd just come from a meeting and didn't have her surf gear, but offered to use my camera to take photos from the beach. Here they are:

Birthday party wave! Max, Emily and me.

Emily and Max left when I rode a wave in to retrieve my camera from J-Bird, the lens sadly fogged from the temperatures changes and residual moisture inside. I wanted to get one or two more waves and Deepak joined me in the lineup, but the wave quality was dropping with the fast-falling tide and rising south wind and swell. It was hard to find a shoulder among the hard closeouts. At last I snagged a right that didn't slam shut immediately and came in smiling. I must've been a good girl this year, to get such a nice day and fun surf with my friends on my birthday. Stoked!

Surfline: Starting to build and still very clean. Shape is on the walled up side with some corners and will likely worsen through the afternoon as the tide drops and the swell builds. We're seeing a definite increase in new West swell (270-290) already. Conditions are still clean with light SE/ESE wind and surf is in the 4-5'+ range at the better breaks, with standouts up to a couple feet++ overhead. Look for a building trend through the afternoon, with many breaks getting better with the dropping tide. Buoy 46012: (Wave) SWELL: 6.9 ft at 11.4 s WNW 92 / WIND WAVE: 3.0 ft at 4.8 s SSW / WVHT: 7.5 ft / APD: 7.2 s / MWD: 285° (Met) WSPD: 12 kts / GST: 14 kts / WVHT: 7.5 ft / DPD: 11.0 s / WDIR: 140° / ATMP: 54.5° F / WTMP: 54.1° F. Tide: 3' falling below 1.'