Saturday 6:45am DP WFL: There is still waves! It’s not huge, take a log and a fat fish and have some more fun. Rafa delivers!! Best groundswell spots look knee to thigh occ waist high at dawn, 036 is 5ft@10 SW inside 98 is 3@10 offshore winds, go surf! …Acc the forecast tomorrow there will be smaller swell, like a 1ft log swell but check it just in case and keep an eye on the offshore buoys to see if the swell is trending down. Also the best sand bars that wedge the 1ft swell will have plus peaks for sure. Thanks for the comments!! Please more!!
Friday 7am Weather Headlines: Rafael, waves and no destruction for WFL(full Friday update below).
So stoked on this new Rip Curl edit. 3 of my favorite surfers having fun and ripping! To see Tom Curren at 60 still getting parts in a major surf movie and he looks great is inspiring!! Throw in the 80’s vibe and killer soundtrack featuring the Divinyls and the Church and I’m hooked! Lazer Breathing Dragons is an instant classic and so cool! Steph kills it in this film!
Friday WFL 7am Still looking fun on the cams down south. Best south facers look to have clean swell this am in the 2-3ft range, slow fade is forecast today with knee high swell tomorrow but keep an eye on it in case it pulses over the weekend… GM waves looked so fun yesterday- Jersey?! Big brown tubes from what I saw down south… Today is a bit smaller but there is still surf esp at south facers. Good news: Rafa is strong!! He’s chugging due west at 9 and should throw back a small line thru the weekend. Did you ever say to your buddy(I know I did) ‘What if a hurricane got stuck in the gulf and just stayed there?’ Well,that is what is looking to happen. No hype but a small line is possible for quite a few days. Keep an eye on the wave model for pulses. I have no idea. I could be like ‘yeah pulse and it’s small and weak or no it’s gonna be small and weak and best south facer has chest high barrels so hard to tell the timing of it. Do this: Go surf and when you do take a log or mid for tiny swell but keep your shorty around too, just in case. Glad you got got surf. If you are 100% positive you got sick from surfing the gulf let us know so we can warn others, otw if your great let us know, come in and claim it!! Back with a better look at today and tomorrow.
Details by Diaco updated 11/8
Calm till November 7
Thursday Nov 7: Knee to thigh high am building to chest high and clean at best hurricane swell spots, SE and ESE winds at 15plus.
Friday Nov 8: knee to waist plus at best south facers, ESE winds at 15.
Saturday Nov 9: Knee high SW small line at best g swell spots, E winds at 10-15, possibly watching another low in the Bahamas.
Sunday Nov 10: Knee high at best h swell spots, E winds at 10-15.
Monday Nov 11: Knee high at best h swell spots, E winds at 5-10.
NW PR The latest:
aurasurf.com
Are any local beaches safe water quality wise to swim? Heard about high red tide levels and amoebas sending people to ICU. Can’t get the FWC red tide site to work.
thanks Allen good question…
Water seems kinda dirty but I surfed 10 hours over past 3 days (10-7, 10-8, 10-9) and didn’t get sick. The freshwater runoff continues to be bring alot of sediment into the gulf north and south of Pinellas. No indication of red tide at the Redington Shores beach, it’s still way offshore.
Water quality is pretty suspect still with the run off.
We had a creek overflow on our property and as the run off receded we were left with trails of dead fish. Ive heard reports of red tide off the coast, not sure if it’s at the shore yet. Almost every municipality had to drain their sewage into the bay.
I wonder what happened with the gypsum stacks ?
Driving through town Carrollwood yesterday it smelt like sewage from 275 to Race Track road.
Looking forward to escaping from the gulf coast this season.
Thanks for the update Abe, the Caribbean surf forecast is insane for the next two weeks.
EURO withe the ideal path…but still not going to find me in the cesspool! Damn shame but there’s no end in sight atm
How do you all feel about the water quality for a surf later this week? I’ve heard reports that the water is ok and red tide is still mostly offshore.
Was considering driving up to the panhandle later this week to try and catch it as well.
Best I can find is that the red tide is still offshore. Around Sarasota area the e-coli report is low concentration and no avoid the water advisories. Will keep looking and post what I find.
I checked dept of health / and red tide watch.
Dept of health says “good” with the on the only “bad” on a couple intercoastal areas.
Red tide is mostly low to none – maybe a little tiny blip in sarasota county.
The water just has this gooey green vibe going atm up here in pinellas, idk about going out with my skateboarding bruises lol.
PR Dreaming of blue water and clean waves
Thoughts on pinellas water quality?
Red Tide is not the issue. The storm debris and sewage brought a different bacteria – vibrio vulnificus.
thanks guys for the reports- personally I would have a hard time skipping swell for surfing in dirty water but you could get sick for sure, be careful
prob gonna take the day off tomoro bc yolo and its gonna be right there in the slot for a day.
poopoo water had a long time to flush out…weeks and weeks and weeks of east winds and tide fluctuations…vibrio favors backwaters/brackish not active surf zones…still not ideal to even have to think about it and who knows whats below the surface debris wise…
francine swell surprised some people, this one should too. much stronger than anticipated and slow moving.
Haven’t been to the beaches since Helene came through and decided to take a drive to scope out possible places to park/paddle out/etc.. South Pinellas is still really bad and our most popular location honestly shouldn’t be accessed unless you live there for the sake of the work being done. Really sad to see how bad everything still is.
Happy hunting for your small wave goodness. Will be interesting to see what the new sandbars look like.
i hopped around locally all day and found fun waves in multiple diff places. it finally turned on early mid pm and fired for a bit. waist shoulder maybe plus glassy peelers…what a season…cheerz…
Went down to manatee for the afternoon. Was awesome waves and hardly anyone out.
Long period 6 wave sets.
Offshore wind
Sand bars chonking
Water quality wasnt too bad- Not perfect- But not dead fish and burning eyes
Nice offshore rides coming in thigh to chest (I’m 6’4″) in T,I, water wasn’t clear but no smell, so good to see things getting back to normal down there but still a long way to go
The waves were a lot of fun in IRB yesterday evening, but the water was pretty funky. It smelled bad and had a lot of sediment/gunk floating around. I feel fine after surfing, but it could affect other people differently.
Thanks for the water quality updates guys. A few years ago after a post cane’ session, I could hardly breath. It took 6 months to recover fully lungs were full of crap. I’ll pass on this swell. Y’all be safe and have fun!!!
Surfed yesterday mid day, kinda gross water, thigh high. Surfed again last night, really REALLY gross water, chest high. Surfed this morning, pretty normal water, waist high. Haven’t gotten sick yet. I’ve had vibrio from salt water in my mouth and I was sick like 4 hours after I was in. Hoping for a wave around this weekend!
Drove up to pc this morning and surfed at the park for a couple sessions. Started really coming in at dark.
2 days of clean hurricane surf! Lots of juice!
it looks like the kickback peaked but there should be a waist high wave somewhere for someone for something at least for a minute this morning and then maybe on the other end of low tide incoming.
faded out kinda hard overnight acc. to buoy so idk if itll really climb much again since the storms weakened alot now and well away.
yes but the swell that is hitting now is from when Rafa was still pumping, there is a 24-36hr delay for sure coming from so far…
for what it’s worth the gFS shows a small swell late Monday early Tuesday before it finally goes away, probably knee high at best sand bars
Got 3 days in a row including this morning.
Knee to waist.
Glassy, south swell, offshore breeze, nice shape
Water is definitely dirty but after 10 hours in the water over the past 3 days, I feel fine.