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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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...