Latest Report | Surf Reports | February Reports

Santa Barbara Area Surf Report

 
    
Date/Time:   Friday, 14 February, 10:30-12:00  
    
Location:   Gaviota Coast  
    
Weather:   Sunny with a bit of wind  
    
Conditions:   Clean considering the storm that just broke up  
    
Swell (Harvest Bouy):   4.4ft @ 8s @ 290°  
    
Tide:   3.0 and falling  
    
Surf:   Waist High with some chest high sets  
    
Board:   Progressive  
    
Comments:   Call me a fair weather surfer but the storm broke up last night and today was sunny and some swell started to show up from the NW. Not a whole lot of swell but it was the first time I've been on the short board for 2 weeks and it felt great. I forgot it is Presidents Day weekend, so my usually empty lunchtime session was filled with some local high school shredders. It was actually quite fun surfing with these tikes, they really push each other with moves and even though i have no "moves", they were pushing me in a way to try stuff I usually wouldn't. There was one kid out there, he had to have been about 5' tall and 14 years old. He had sunscreen on his face which made him look a bit like an ozzy but he was king of hitting the lip and getting airborne, grabbing his rails with 2 hands and doing 180's and 270's. He had a pretty good sucess rate too, and he was all smiles. Those kids get 2 thumbs up for spirit and style.

Perhaps it was because I hadn't been on the shorty in awhile, but I felt a bit dead on it at first, just couldn't really suck any life out of the waves even though my counterparts were busting all kinds of sick airs that im sure have names but i'm so out of the loop i'll never know what they are. A little while into I was managing to work things a bit better. It was one of my most pumped up days of surfing in awhile, I think being pent up inside and working was unleashed on this sunny day surfing with youngsters.

The water was a bit muddy from the rains but no so bad. I think the sandbars were really helped by the storms and some rip currents were really churning out there, along with a fairly fast littoral drift that was heading east. The outlook for waves doesn't look so good. This swell should start dying tonight and there doesn't seem to be much out there to replace it.



 
    
   
Santa Barbara Surfing, an open content site.
Created by Tim Maddux, Continued by Pope