Santa Barbara Area Surf Report
    
  February Overview 2000 Overview  
    
Date/Time: Wednesday, February 23rd, 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Location: Gaviota Coast
Weather: Strong westerly clearing winds, gusting nearly to gale force on the inner channel buoy. Earlier today we had 15-20 kt southeasterlies.
Conditions: Fair to poor with all that wind generating lots of chop except in the most sheltered points.
Swell: Building again out of the WNW, from 10 ft at 14 s to 15 ft at 14 s on outer buoys, and from 6 ft at 14 s to 8 ft at 14 s on the inner buoys.
Surf: Waist to chest high.
Comments: Went out for an afternoon dip in the wind-chilled and brackish chocolatey waters, more as a rebellion against the entire weekend's unruly weather than because of good surf. In fact, for nearly the entire session the waves were pathetic and required a lot of groveling.

The swell picked up a little bit (I realize now after getting home and seeing the buoys change) and a few consistent chest high sets began rolling in, some waves even as big as overhead. A couple of those and my outlook changed from being ready to paddle in to shore again to wanting more! That's when I got the best two of the session, with the wind backed off just enough to make the sections fun and makeable instead of a closeout mess, and connecting hard full-rotational carves on those waves made my afternoon.


Santa Barbara Surfing -- Last updated 2/23/2000.