Santa Barbara Area Surf Report

April Overview 1998 Overview

Date/Time: Monday, April 27th, 11:00 am - 3:00 pm
Location: Secos / Arroyo Sequit / Leo Carrillo
Weather: Mostly clear with building westerly sideshores into the afternoon.
Conditions: Fair with building side lump, didn't hurt the shape. Dropping tide eventually closing most of the sets out.
Swell: Small SW groundswell (230), 2 ft at 17-20 s.
Surf: Waist to shoulder high on the sets, some to head high.
Comments: A surprisingly light crowd and surf a lot better than expected greeted my eyes as I rolled up on PCH in the late morning hours, late start as the 4:30 am buoy check didn't show much. One of the online reports called the 'bu at 2-4' and that coupled with almost a week of dry time was enough to get me moving by mid afternoon.

Hit the john for some mandatory pre-session activity and then suited up and grabbed the old 6'6" to do battle with the crowd and the rocks. Felt good to be back in the water here, especially on a pretty uncrowded morning. Good sets albeit inconsistent, and things only got busy for an hour or so around lunchtime before clearing up again.

Tried sitting way on the outside rock/reefs; first time I've done that on my shortboard and it turned out to be a much easier takeoff than I had originally thought. Good omen for the rest of the season. Connected a few all the way to the stairway and picked off the last good set wave of the afternoon before it started to close out and the kelp bed rock started to show itself. A good start to the summer swell season.


Santa Barbara Surfing -- Last updated 4/27/98.