Santa Barbara Area Surf Report
    
  October Overview 1999 Overview  
    
Date/Time: Thursday, October 28th, 4:30 pm - 6:30 pm
Location: Rincon
Weather: Light easterly winds under partly cloudy skies.
Conditions: Lumpy, bumpy, windswelly, poor.
Swell: New solid NW swell, up to 22 ft at 20 s on the West Channel, from 290 degrees. 8 ft at 20 s on the East Channel buoy.
Surf: Surprisingly poor. Warbly lines around head high on some drops but largely waist high dregs.
Comments: With the swell rumbling fast and hard down the coast as dusk approached, the choice became: either see the new surf movie tonight, or surf. I chose to surf. Couldn't possibly get anything else done, would have been too distracted by the big waves on the buoys.

Rincon wasn't herself, though, laboring under the lousy breezes. The indicator wasn't working at all, and while some strong sets very occasionally rolled through the rivermouth, it felt like a sub-par day. Got only one or two decent waves for a beachbreak, let alone this classic point. Not much better in the cove, this time largely my fault. The sandbar was making some nice hollow pits that I fell over the falls and into in the dark, cursing my nearsightedness as I went under. Eventually survived one about halfway in, then got my best ride of the day, a belly ride on a little waist high ripple in the shorebreak that went a lot farther than I expected.


Santa Barbara Surfing -- Last updated 10/28/1999.