September Overview
2000 Overview
 

Santa Barbara Area Surf Report

 
    
Date/Time:   Tuesday, September 12th, 8:00 am - 10:00 am  
    
Location:   Zero / Nicholas Canyon  
    
Weather:   Warm and humid, hurricane weather! Water felt icy cold , fullsuit season is upon us.  
    
Conditions:   Good to fair, wind coming up early out of the west, before noon.  
    
Swell:   SSE hurricane swell, 3-4 ft at 12-14 s from 155-165 degrees.  
    
Surf:   Waist to chest high with very spotty overhead single wave sets.  
    
Comments:   Knew from Monday evening that some of the backsides of the points (like Rincon) had good waves, I was hoping for some overhead surf down around the bend. Turned out disappointed as it appears the swell was too east -- Catalina and San Clemente islands threw some shadow over the whole stretch of coast west of Point Mugu (and especially Pt Dume) and I got skunked.

Hopped in the water at Zero just to get wet after seeing weak surf at County Line, Staircase, and Leo. Figured the shadow would be even worse down towards Zuma and I didn't want to drive all the way back without some water time in the hopes that Backside Rincon would be good. So, it was here or nowhere.

Used to surf here all the time 7-8 years ago, and now it's a rare event that I ride this little scrap of a left point. The angle was perfect but the size was small and the tide was high, forcing the small waves in right into the point and rocks and the large waves still closed out very wide. Only got a few decent rides, but it was fun to play around with a rare set of rides on my backhand. A novelty for someone who lives in the Land of Right Points, and probably my last chance at such a novelty with the summer swell season slowing so speedily. Hope you got better waves than I did...

 
    
   
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Created by Tim Maddux, courtesy of UCSB, CoE, ME, and CS. Last updated 9/13/2000.