Santa Barbara Area Surf Report |
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| August Overview | 2000 Overview | ||
| Date/Time: | Tuesday, August 1st, 12:00 noon - 4:00 pm |
| Location: | Secos / Arroyo Sequit / Leo Carrillo |
| Weather: | Tropical, muggy, dead calm winds. |
| Conditions: | Glassy and perfect. |
| Swell: | Strong southern hemi, over 4 ft at 17 s from 180 degrees. |
| Surf: | Big, consistently overhead and a half with double overhead sets. |
| Comments: |
Biggest swell of the summer season and the first solid one we've
had since May.
Too big and too south for here, with the larger sets breaking way
outside the third reef at the outer kelp line and then quickly
closing to well wide of the windsurf rock, even at high tide.
Figured it might have been like that, but didn't want to waste any time watching it get more closed out as the tide dropped into the evening. Face it, I was in a rush after being very starved for surf the past couple of months. So I got out there as quick as I could. Brought the 6'6" round-pintail in anticipation of those bigger waves and the need for speed. It wasn't long before big sets started hitting the third reef and then went way outside of it. Holy -! Having never taken off on a wave this far out before, I tried to stick with the smaller stuff that broke on what was usually the "outside" and let the longboarders glide into the drops deep on the dry exposed rocks. Lots of big drops but not a single wave that didn't shut down halfway through, and the shape did worsen as the tide went down. Had a lot of fun playing with the closeouts and trying to beat the sections, especially the hollow one right over the pair of closeout rocks. If you get it wired you can really get barrelled. Didn't get in there today but got close. A big crowd came out right at about 5:00pm, looking for the tide swing, while I was just looking for a wave to go in on. Heard later that it got really good from 8-9pm with more water on the lineups, and figured I'd start late the next day and catch that push. Tonight I got a chuckle out of the 10pm LA newscasts with bewildered reporters on the beaches babbling about the high tide and south swell setup-induced coastal flooding. |