Monday 27 February 2012

more coming...

Well I'm in Dublin hunting for the Crack - haven't found it (yet) but did have a nice pint of guin and a nice juicy burrito for my tea. Wish i was back 'ome as the wind will be back offshore by about 4 tomorrow afternoon with a new swell pumping in right about now. Still the swell looks like hanging around for a few days with periods in the double digits and nice winds and I might bag a couple of days off THU and FRI. Making motions to get a new machine fixed up too.

Sunday 26 February 2012

Sunday Sun (don't buy it)

Looks like the surf's good again this morning but get on it now as the wind'll be picking up this afternoon. Another low is out there too, which has been sloping around out there for quite some time now and a new load of swell will be in by tomorrow evening.
...and the wind looks perfect from Tuesday evening through to Thursday so could be a good chance to take a few afternoons off.

Saturday 25 February 2012

Handbrake turn on the 303

Long walls of glory.
Well there was a fair amount of faffing around last night which culminated in just a silly amount of indecision. The dog and the mrs knows the rules by now - If I'm up, we're all up, and we were out the door by just after 6. My initial intention was to head back to the cottage and see what was around. A more detailed look at the charts steered me into uncharted territory and by Oh nine hundred hours we were in deepest darkest Dorset. Coming over the top of the hill towards Kimmeridge is always a bit of heart in the mooth moment and this morning was one of those ones where you trust your intuition but are never quite sure. Craning the head right at the top of the hill met with a view of clean waves of a decent size. The hammer went back down on the turbo pedal and the dog went ping ponging around in the back as i drove the final mile way too fast. ReSult. Well here it is in all its glory. (one of these is me on the take off)
3 and a half hours, about 20 whompers and cold hands later i was ready for some fodder.

Friday 24 February 2012

plip plip plop

The last few forecast runs have not been ideal. However, it's the weekend and there is nothing better to do than go roaring round the country side looking for waves. The tank's full and the latest charts for tomorrow evening don't show an isobar from Portrush to Mundaka so that means only one thing. Sheet glass all afternoon. YES PLEASE
Oh and by the way, some decent waves next week too.

Thursday 23 February 2012

Not all is lost...

Hmm.. dissapointing - Was getting excited there for a moment - a few of the forecast runs from earlier in the week were smoking hot, but as is often the case with weather forecasting, things have taken a turn for the worst. The swell is there, but the high, which at one point looked like settling in right on the spot, has shifted its axis a hundred km or so to the south and this means rather than south-easterly wind, now it's west or north west. There are a couple of saving graces however, the winds looking light or perhaps even non existant and the swell has a more than its usual share of south in it so that means there will be options for some of the lesser spotted spots along the south coast.

Monday 20 February 2012

Steady on now ladies....

The last post hinted towards the breaking of spring and some warmer temperatures. It's plain to see here on the charts below, with lots of agreement from all the forecasters on a nice juicy conveyor belt of warm air coming our way direct from the Azores.






So - that means two things are locked in - warmer weather is on the way and also lots of waves from that oh so beautiful (just west of) south-westerly direction.

One thing that is a little annoying however is quite what will happen next - not all the forecast charts have the same prognosis for Saturday. This is where the real skill in weather forecasting comes in. If the charts aren't all the same, which ones do you believe and when? Below we see a number of outcomes for the weekend from the main forecast providers. It's a variation on the same theme (a nice high cosying down in front of the fireplace over southern England) but the devil is in the detail and so careful analysis is required to score the best waves.

UKMO - perfectly position with just the lightest the wind puffing away from the east against a beefy old westerly swell.




Here's EC which hints towards a more south-westerly solution, which could be a disaster.



And this from the Americans.... not bad either.

Tuesday 14 February 2012

The tail end of ECMWF

The back end of the forecast run is a dark unpredictable place where not everything goes to plan. 10 days time and there is every hope of spring.

See for yourselves...

Monday 13 February 2012

Winter Wonder Update.

Hmm, so how good were the waves last week? By all accounts the world and his wife scored some. Midweed waves allround and just about every beach on the north shore had some beauties. While the rest of the country shuddered under temperatures which would have frozen even the most ginormous sumo wrestler to the core, a proper easterly, with its origins deep in in the Arctic wilderness to the north of Moscow, kept everyone shuddering in Europe. It even wiped out a fair chunk of the vagrant community sleeping rough in the great European metropoli all the way from Krakow to Paris. This frigid wind straighted up over the English channel and dumped a few inches of powder a couple of times over the southern and eastern England. Meanwhile, the wind across Corn settled into a rut and neither wavered from that magic south-easterly quadrant nor rose above 10 mile per hour.

Not the most meaty of swells, but they ran all the way into the western approaches at full bore before being cleaned up at the last moment as they marched up past Cape Cornwall towards civilisation.

Swells were all time, nearly all of last week, peaking at about 6-8 foot on Wednesday night and Thursday morning with chest to head high sessions aplenty.

A mystery snapper bagged this beast from the top of Porthtowan looking down towards flat rock, while those that could, bagged a long awaited sickie.



Time to get back in the saddle and get on with some work as the prospects are pretty dismal for the foreseeable. West and north-west winds mean big, bouncy waves and onshore shite for the best part of the next 10 days.

Sunday 5 February 2012

Winter Wonder



Brr - it's cold, there's been a blast from the east and sludgy snow lies outside. Meanwhile a thousand miles north-west a big storm is out there kicking out a right old pong.

After last night's dollop its going to settle down tonight and pressure builds out from Scadinavia. Good news if you like ice and the promise of some winter waves.



Tuesday and Wednesday are looking mighty fine - a couple of days of light offshore winds and a grunty old swell coming in from the west.



Get your suit dried out in front of the fire tonight and make sure everythings ready to go on Tuesday morning.

checklist
flask of coffee
woolly jumper
the Rab
woolly socks
woolly hat
neoprene (thick) to cover all but the eyes and mouth.
£3 for a pasty on the way home
firewood