Summer 2018 and surf board talk

Lets talk twins…

WFL Tuesday: Wow, August is flattening out! Doldrums and horse latitudes, nothing going on. I would say check the EC forecast but they were not looking too good to me either. Good time to get away. How sick is Centro? If you had a free ticket between Bocas in the Caribe and El Sal on the Pacific, which would you choose? A buddy just got back from Nica and scored big time, nobody around with conflict going on in that country. Boards- So with no waves now till late August let’s talk about boards. I’ve started riding mid lengths now bc the waves where I live in Rincon are so slopey. The only time I ride shorty is when it’s LP and good. If it’s waist to chest and not barreling the mid length is so fun and kind of straightens out my style and makes it so easy to paddle and catch waves early down in the Caribbean and it’s not like I’m so rad on short-board that anything I want to do on 5’10 I can do on a 7’0. It would be different in dumpy beach break. Which brings us to twin fins. I still love twins. I have 2, a RNF and a Mod Retro, love em both… I am off keel fins and onto AM twins and it makes a huge difference. Twins are the best boards for skatey flow. Twins have no drag, they just fly on the wave. Have you seen Surfline’s guide to twin fins? That is a meaty guide that will take awhile to get thru but how good does Josh Kerr looks on a twin fin? Sick! Have a great day dreaming of boards… Check out all the sick twins at the Compound!

Leaning into the RNF at Spanish Wall during a hurricane swell in PR.


Twin finning in AMI. Photo: Mo.



Mid-Lenghts-
This is a 7’0 at Domes in January.


Aurasurf.com closing out 2018- “Hey Micah, whens the next waves?!” People have been asking me that for a long time. I’ve been forecasting surf for WFL since the mid 80’s. I’m obsessed with surfing and watching the weather. I was always so hungry for the next surf so I poured over weather charts on a daily basis. Even before I started surfing, the massive freeze events Florida had in 1977 and 1983 had a huge impact on me in my youth and I started studying and memorizing local weather patterns. I wish to thank all of you for your loyal support through the years. Here are some comments from our readers:
“thank you for the consistent forecasts and early morning reports… one of the very few with the important early report…”
“As usual, your forecast is the best around & you save me the heavy lifting on the forecast that I just don’t have time to do”

From a long time reader.

About the site: It’s been going since 1998 when I first got the internet. Stats remain consistent year after year with a core crew of regular readers checking in every day numbering in the mid 100’s. Peak numbers during periods of surf blast into the 1000’s. Aurasurf.com remains a weather discussion uniquely tailored to the ‘Core WFL Surfer’ with the answer to the key question always out front: “Hey Micah, when’s the next waves?!”

About the forecaster: My name is Micah Weaver. I’m from St Petersburg, Florida. I started forecasting for the WFL gulf in the mid 1980’s and continue to do so up to today. I currently live in Rincon, Puerto Rico. Thanks for visiting aurasurf.com


Tropical Waves.

Friday 8/31 in Isabela: Really fun waves, surprising. So good to get back in the water after a long drought and my 1st time going to Isabela all summer. This is ENE trade swell 3.6ft at 8 seconds and 10-15knt trades. SS was bigger than Jobos but Julie got some long ones at Jobos, stoked.

Burger.

Julieta at Jobos.

set wave


Secret Spot was really fun, could have surfed for hours but Julie wanted to surf Jobos so no worries. Maybe head up here next week for the storm swell.




20 YEARS AURASURF.COM-
1998-2018.

Puerto Rico 100%


57 thoughts on “Summer 2018 and surf board talk

  1. Fuggin

    Working now, past few days it was down. Glad you’re back up! My eyes are on the retrograde LA low, nothing showing on the buoys though 🤙🤞🤙

  2. admin Post author

    bummer about Kelly, Jordy was on fire and Kelly did not get the waves. Loved that 6 second barrel Kelly got if he had come out it would have been a different story. I saw him from the water surf Tiara in 89′ he was making deep impossible tubes- so cool to see from the water… best tube rider of all time in my opinion. Gotta root for Slater he’s the only Florida guy even close to the CT’ and he 40 freaking 6!!!

  3. EVY

    Ahhhh Good, Good we got our voices back : )) I like Kelly …. but to me Cory was/is always far more beautiful to watch

  4. EVY

    Good thing I peeked in here…. read the report and my first thought was “Is Micah teasing us?” I read it over and over… I’m so wave-starved I couldn’t believe we may be getting a Wave Buffet in a day or so. Really hope this happens……….(who doesn’t LOL) – seriously need a REFRESH here

  5. RUSS-D

    Well I can just about guarantee waves in our near future. I woke up this morning and my back is hurting. Seems to happen a lot more this past year. I am hoping it eases up and I can get out a day or two. I haven’t surfed anything remotely fun in a long while now. Even if I can’t make it out I hope y’all catch some nuggets.

  6. DW

    Russ-D hope your back improves, LBP is a real bummer…I know from many years of experience. 🙁
    Couldn’t go to EC last Tues for the swell but at least we have a chance for some LB wind dribblers in the coming days. Been in dry-dock for a while. As MW noted in today’s comments a legit wave always the gulf issue…time and tide dependent if ya score or not…seems some always do. Good luck to all! 🙂

  7. Ericito

    Spb has been gettin better, but ultimately needs the dredge. That shoal just kills the energy most days. 3 weeks until the jetties are done, and then the dredge will start!

  8. admin Post author

    thanks for the update guys, hope Upham goes off again Ericito I will be over there in August but my timing is usually bad

  9. KWH

    Fun waves today from 3:00 to 7:30. Tide was a little funky after 4:00, but got super fun around 6
    5:30> Flow and buoy, so great to get summer flow!

  10. Ericito

    Caught some fun ones at purp house last night wuth the boys. Wind laid down and some waist + waves were rolling through. The new sand from the dredge at sunset seems to be doing well. Waves had good form

  11. Fuggin

    Caught some fun 2-3ft late yesterday afternoon, lining up for a couple sections. 2-3ft sloppa choppa at first light, got a few slides

  12. Ericito

    Fun again today. Surfed with rasta at mid jetty. Rains came and went and so did the wind! Rib + lining all the way to the beach. Hoping for something in the am

  13. DW

    MW has another lil’ rippa! Same deal this weekend with hopefully a little more energy. look for the late afternoon bump up on the Egmont buoy. Thr it hit 3.3′ @ 6s for knee-occ. waist @ Sunset, Fri was 4.3′ @ 5s and waist occ. stomach+. Maybe it notches up more today or tomorrow…or as long as the weather and moderate+ west flow continues.

  14. Fuggin

    Dawn Patrol and late afternoon has been working for me with incoming tides the past 3 days. It seems to be getting 1ft bigger every day with this moderate onshore flow. Hoping to get a 1 week streak in woot!

  15. evelyn

    ….shoulda been out earlier, strong rip – but I got enough to take the edge off – quenched for the day – looking to tomorrow

  16. JDH

    L Dizzle early, Solid lining up waist plus. Was going to check Siesta as the wind really started cranking from more of a northerly direction before the rain came in. Couldnt find a parking spot.
    Saw a car smash hard on Siesta drive, I don’t even know how it was possible.
    So took a look at Turtle, tide started dropping and the sand bar was out of control but solid chest.
    Paddled out, caught one good left after getting frustrated by scattered peaks.
    Then headed down to NJ and the red tide was strong. There were some heavy peaking bowls that were spitting over but lots of fast water moving so I grabbed the boogie and got wide open shacked for 40 minutes before my eyes were burning.
    Glad I opted for the boogie. 🙂

    For July is call it a good day for me.

  17. higgy baby

    super chunk a funk in TI yesterday not much fun on a longboard but had fun body surfing anyway, no parking in sunset what a hot mess that is rite now.

  18. JDH

    Sunset session down south was seriously good where I was in the 941.
    One other guy out. It cleaned up and that 8 second energy really showed with connecting lines that were like those evening seshes in the winter when the winds go slack and it really pays to be there for that short window.
    Tomorrow dawn patrol could be really good if the wind holds off.
    Fuggin, are you on it? Mid jetty on LB has been really good on that low to incoming.

  19. RUSS-D

    5′ @ 8 sec 261° I will make a guess and say the waves are gonna be good this morning for sure. I am off to work soon so I hope everyone else gets some nuggets.

  20. G-dawg

    Manatee county was fun this morning and afternoon. Looked bad from the beach, glad I stayed!

  21. JDH

    Never! Even during strong lows where it’d blowing hard and consistent, we don’t see 9 seconds.
    I’m not sure what to make of it. I did see that the angle of wind was pretty straight at us from nearly the upper Texas coast. And for days.
    What I’m always trying to deduce and make sense of, is the swell period. Only hit 0.7′ for a short time but it was consistently on the average shape.
    I’m guessing the wind has to go completely slack for the actual swell period to jump up, though I’ve seen it go higher on those south souteast days that we get as a tropical system like Hermine approaches from the channel.
    If I had time, I’d like to have checked some deep water breaks with that 9 second energy.

  22. Ericito

    Today is day 8 of rideable waves. Started last Tuesday at the memorial paddle out for my big brother at sunset. Broke a board, smashed my face, surfed ALOT! The dredge at sunset has been wayyy gnar! So heavy and shallow! Fun week of waves. It seemed to clean up every time the rain came through and ended! Great swell for sure!

  23. JDH

    Edit: “We don’t see 9 seconds too often even during winter lows”

    One of the best stretches if summer time trough swell in my memory bank.

  24. EVY

    Happy to get out – wasn’t pretty, but I got waves – so I’m Happier now then when I went out : ))

  25. RUSS-D

    Don’t ever go 5-6 months without surfing. It is detrimental to your abilities to catch waves. I paddled out on Sunday afternoon at Sunset. It looked OK from the beach. Heard it was fast and dumpy and it looked it. And it was. I caught maybe 2 waves in over an hour and got out. I ended up leaving and driving a few towns up north and paddling out at a spot I check on occasion. Found a fun little wave to ride on my fat fish and had it all to myself. It reassured me I actually still know how to surf, I just need to get out there and do it a lot more often to stay on my game LOL.

  26. DW

    MW, question – who is “Cole” and what website?

    RussD – Happy for you to be surfing again. Bad backs will do that to ya. I was dry docked for two motnhs prior to this little run of surf we had.

    1. admin Post author

      Cole Peterson is the guy who reports for gulfster, nice kid doing a good job.

  27. G-dawg

    Amazing July run of waves!
    I’d like to get that 1996, 9 second channel swell soon.
    🏄

    1. admin Post author

      questions: do any of you guys know what “polar” is? do you use it? Have you noticed anything weird?

      thanks

  28. JDH

    My opinion about the “weather” & Rain patterns were seeing ,,,,, ehhhhhh, this probably isnt the place for it.
    If you live in the Bay Area and are rational, and are looking at the skies everyday, you know what you see in the sky and its not blue skies.
    That’s all I’m going to say. Peace

  29. DW

    Very abnormal summer weather this year, lots of W flow, no Bermuda High, etc. Couple that with:
    1. Terrible red tide from Sarasota to Ft Myers.
    2. Big O toxic runoff F’in up FT Myers and Pine Isl Sound and Stuart area on EC
    And our elected leaders sit and twiddle their thumbs as usual…Nice.

    1. admin Post author

      did they ever ‘fix’ the everglades like they said they would? DW the Bermuda high has been the Azores high this summer, very strong and very far to the east which puts WFL on the side of the high instead of under it and thus the open door for troughs and W flow, more rain too. How much rain have you guys been getting? This weekend is a change flow goes east and SE as the high goes higher than I 10.

      In NW PR, we had a very dry July but it’s rained every day in August so far here 🙂 much cooler thank Jah…

  30. DW

    MW, The Glades are in a “perpetual state of fix” meaning nothing much gets done. Politicians throw a few bones at the environment while being bought and doing the bidding of Big Sugar and other moneyed interests. Like most everything else wrong in FL the ACE was/is a big player in the debacle. The diversion of the Kissimmee River into a big sewage ditch was a real smooth move on their part. They don’t call us Flo-duh for nothing!

  31. pablo

    Got a lung infection after surfing Chateau fought it for 6 months, so I quit surfing. West FL will be surfing in literal crap for years to come. Conservatives have sold you out so developers and sugar can worry less about restrictions. SW Florida and the everglades are starting to get developed. That means more run off, more sewage running out from the Caloosahatchee. Again, cause conservatives don’t care about you or the environment. Enjoy surfing in your own feces.

    1. admin Post author

      that comment was a bit on the negative but Im going to allow it, def has a ring of truth to it… when I moved the last summer was 2010 the BP oil disaster, which was a nightmare but at my local beach the water was as clean and clear as ever, red tide is much closer to home and headed towards Tampa Bay. one thing that freaked me out was the amount of souless, massive publicly traded development corporations that are gobbling land w/o conscience and only bottom line is profits, scary

  32. DW

    As a character in the Pogo cartoon strip said decades ago…”we have seen the enemy and it is us!” FL’s greed killed the goose that laid the golden egg. Apologies for the clich’es but its so true.

  33. Rob Hyypio

    While the phenomenon known as “Red Tide” is caused by a naturally occurring organism in the water, the algae bloom is accelerated by nutrient rich runoff out of the Everglades. And THAT in and of itself is entirely man made. This sort of thing is going to continue to happen more frequently unless the proposed reservoirs are built on the land that is south of the Everglades.

    Don’t be fooled by people who are saying that “it’s a naturally occurring” event.

  34. fbc

    So sad to see this happening to this stretch of coast. Just on the news… they have pulled two dead dolphins off of Venice beaches today, “the cause is unknown but it is very likely due to the red tide”, so they report. Those dolphins likely were in the VSJ lineup getting air earlier this year. Venice water police and lifeguards have to work in that awful environment… constant exposure. Tragic and foul consequences of our footprint on this state.

  35. KB

    Had a great sup sesh yesterday when it glassed off with only minimal people. Storms rolled thru with lots of electricity so we decided to wait it out as to live another day. Afterwards it was clean w long lines. Tides were extreme due to new moon phase. Definitely worth the wait w only a couple of friends to score knee to waist high peelers. Wish u could have seen it. Classic plus sandbar is getting better so bring on the storms.

  36. JDH

    I went to Charleston SC over the weekend and of course it’d be flat. I was there to visit family, so on Saturday we went to Isle of Palms. Half a foot of dribble with 20-25 mph of onshore wind and it did not pick up all day, it was the craziest thing. The winds were blowing onshore for a ways out and if that was wind in the Gulf, there’d be more to ride.
    There were more waves Gulfside than there were there with less wind. Hmm…
    While there I was hanging out on the sandbar when I first got there and got raked by a jelly. Went for a walk later up to the pier and swam out to the low tide sand bar, was out for 30 seconds and another jelly got me good and I had enough. That beach didn’t like me and I wasn’t the biggest fan anyways.
    Its not east Florida and its the OBX and the sand was quite muddy. It surely isn’t the beautiful uniqueness of the Gulf.
    I know now just to bypass that southern region of south Carolina and head straight to NC.
    From all the pics and video of SC I’ve seen, in my opinion it breaks way better from Jax to SFl.
    There’s a perfect novelty wave set up right on the side of Fort Sumter on an east southeast swell, though. Wonder if anybody surfs it. Takes a boat or a long paddle to get to it from Folly Beach.

    1. admin Post author

      thanks man for the report. yeah PR does not get good wind-swell either it can blow 25 in Rincon and if there is no swell there will be nothing
      I’ve never heard gulf surf called ‘beautifully unique’ but thet’s poetic and in it’s own way I agree…
      Still stoked on my adopted home at least the ocean is clean so far and the waves will eventually come back
      in the mean time it’s a slower island life, closer to the earth in my opinion. the negative reports about PR bum me out
      there is so much good there…

  37. John Irving

    Good afternoon,

    My name is John and I have grown up surfing Sand Key park for 20 years back in the day when don burns was a lifeguard. I remember as a kid sitting out the back of the key before it was the zoo with you, Brandon, and bill hanging all day catching big bowls outside on a good nw swell on second buoy. I saw all that because I am leading a mission team down to Peurto Rico this September 27-October 5th as we are tearing off three houses in the missionary camp the roofs and redoing them I was wondering on my off day if you are close to Carolina and Lodging in Villa Verde Inn where we are staying would left to call ch some outsiders in your neck of the world. Let me know Praise God my email is Irvjo0511@yahoo.com

Comments are closed.