Santa Barbara Area Surf Report

October Overview | 1996 Overview


Date/Time:
Monday, October 14th, 2:30 pm - 5:30 pm
Location:
Rincon Point
Weather:
Clear blue skies with big blobs of marine fog floating here and there.
Conditions:
Glassy water surface with some reflected-wave chop on the inside. Fair to poor shape due to windswell influence.
Swell:
New WNW groundswell and local windswell combination. Sets from chest high to overhead.
Comments:
NWS issued small-craft advisories and gale warnings for the channel and between Pt. Arguello and Pt. Conception. 32+ kt. winds reigned for most of the morning. Listened to the radio all morning as the swell clicked onto a new buoy each hour.

I'll make the call and say today was opening day for the indicator and rivermouth, perhaps not quite so for the cove. The windswell made for some shifty peaks and a lot of paddling, which helped to break up the early-season crowd. Got a couple of foot-to-the-floor all-down-the-line type waves, most of which had between 2 and 4 guys dropping in on me, and more waves encouraging repeated long and drawn-out cutbacks into the soup. Very flat shoulders.

Finished off the session in the cove, lowest tide ever surfed here by me, a lot smaller with the windswell not making it in. Got one good one to even with the call box and called it quits.


Santa Barbara Surfing -- Last updated 10/15/96.