Last word on Francine: GM, in the wake of Francine the GOMEX is left pretty calm going fwd. An area of low pressure could form next week offshore Honduras and that will be the next area to watch. I hope you had a great week. What an awesome swell. It was so cool to be down here and look at the cams all day for days and see good surf and favorable winds. How was the forecast? LMK in the comments… Wind ended up being pretty much a non factor, that was cool! Looked like Nokomis and Manatee just sucked in the swell and maximized it’s potential. St Pete looked smaller but perfect clean bowls. So stoked for you guys. All the pics are below my Caribbean report. We’ll leave it up until Monday and file it away. Go Bucs!! Thanks to my sponsors for helping me to help you score! The Compound, Scott Orsini came thru for me big time again! Broqsurf.com, Whitneys on LBK and Diaco Law, thanks everybody for the donations! If you still want to donate there is a paypal button on the right and my venmo is Micah-Weaver-8, super appreciated!!
Thursday Francine WFL Surf Photos:
Thursday Photos by Mo Lelii!
What a fun swell!
Good surf!!
Yeah!!
PJ scoring!
Photo: PJ
Photo: Mo
St Petersburg Hurricane Francine Surf Photos
Screenshot
Photos by Al Barbour
Wednesday Surf in St Pete!
It looks about the same size this am in St Pete. Models show it peaking after lunch.
St Pete on Wednesday
pics by Al Barbour.
Need an attorney that understands you? Check in with Scott.
This model shows 10ft seas under LA fanning towards WFL late Wednesday. Waist to chest seems to be a good call for Thursday. Surf all day.
Thursday 9/12 6am Francine Surf Day: Good morning, checking all the c-man sites and PORTS data, winds are light offshore this am. The 2 buoys that are working are 36 and 97 and they both show 2ft at 11 seconds west swell. The models show that swell building slightly to 3ft later today with some longer period swell mixed in esp this morning(13seconds). In the dark, on the cams, it looks… small, doh! Not that much bigger than yesterday. Best spots will pulse today at some point. Winds are forecast to be light today. They will probably seabreeze at some point. Tide looks high this am but will drag out till mid afternoon.
Wed 8am WFL Notes: I found a buoy offshore Texas below Francine’s big butt with 15ft seas from the west. It takes like 48hrs for waves to get from there to WFL so Friday am should have a small leftover too. 97 in pinging also closer to home… Your window seems to be late today(small) thru Friday am for WSW swell from Francine. The latest wind models for tomorrow basically show light winds. Francine is tight and compact all the way by LA so my best guess Thursday 7am wind call in ESE at 5. It may go south during the day on Thursday, the wind that is. Looks like a fun swell, what’s your plan? I’d head to the best ground swell spots late today and early tomorrow and if it’s too crowded I’d surf the corners or the streets where the sand is piled up best. I hope you score. I would have come back for this one but medical appointments are on Friday so enjoy!!! Updated details way below Mo’s awesome video. Please vote for Mo!!
Tuesday 8am Odds and Ends: How can WFL get waves from a storm so far away? Well, for once it looks like things are lining up well within the storm acc the GFS(which has been spot on IMO, on the the last couple storms, Debbie and Beryl). The butt end of Francine is torquing with very strong west winds and seas 10ft and up from the west and a favorable track with Francine headed NE towards New Orleans eventually it’s going to throw the highest seas at WFL so for once WFL is looking at solid swell. The day is Thursday, no secret but there may be fun waves late tomorrow and Friday am also. Local winds– that will be the next big factor for surf quality and both models call for light winds on Wednesday and pretty light on Thursday, maybe due south at 10. Both mornings could have a land breeze. Low tide is the middle of the afternoon, not a huge tide this time. Crowds- yes it’s going to be crowded at the main spots. How often does WFL get solid swell? What to do? Got a back pocket spot? A shallow sand bar that picks up groundswell? Or the corners of the main spots. If the wind goes south (very possible) you may need a jetty. I hope you score, don’t sleep in Thursday. More tomorrow… ETA on the WSW swell is tomorrow afternoon. Peak of the swell is Thursday PM when the models show 3ft at 11 on the beach, that should be pretty fun. 42036 should hit 6ft no problem… No 98, we didnt have 98 when I was a grom so back to blind. I’ve been triangulating between 36, 99 and 97 to keep an eye on the swell… Details below look to be on track…
Monday 10:25am aurasurf.com report on WFL wave chances, wax em’ up…. PTC 6 to be Francine is firing up in the western gulf already and the BOC buoy has west winds on it so a good wrap to get better into tomorrow and wave models are quite stoked on the late week surf chances. As you know Francine will track towards LA and the winds within the storm are forecast to be favorable to send a swell to WFL. Best ground swell spots will be much bigger than normal beach. Winds are forecast to be offshore but with a southerly component in it. So cautiously optimistic with the surf chances, no hype but waves are on the way. Worth a drive? Possibly when the swell really fills in by Thursday but by then winds are SE and SSE forecast so jetties may be the call. With the storm way offshore, we may see a landbreeze and some small clean swell. Rain chances are high too so surf where the water is clean and there will be a chance for glass offs behind the local rain storms. Details updating for the week below Mo’s epic video(thanks for putting me in there Mo!!). Best south facer has a perfect 1ft south line to log this am in the 1ft range…
Details by Diaco updated 9/9 for best ground swell spots, normal beach will stay smaller.
Monday 9/9 Perfect 1ft wave at best south facer…
Tuesday 9/10 1ft southy.
Wednesday 9/11 1ft at 9secs WSW/SW inconsistent knee to thigh high swell, looks a little bigger late day, E to ESE flow.
Thursday 9/12 2-3ft west swell(waist to chest) with ESE winds early becoming SSE and SE winds(TARGET).
Friday 9/13 1-2, 3ft decaying West swell, stomach high early then getting smaller, calm winds becoming light ESE…
Saturday 9/14 1ft leftover swell.
Sunday 9/15 calm.
bucs take? i’m thinking 9-8 again and a playoff appearance. they have a good team and a tough schedule. The theme for the NFL this year will be parody with lots of upsets and closer to even records at the end. Psyched for football LOL… what do you think?
long period sw swell showing up on forecasts mid late work week…
Just watch the St Pete Hometown Hype video! Such a great job w Dustin, the local drone shots, Micah tube shot, and even a quick clip of Ericito on a foam board slider. Well done! Stoked for the late week waves!
i agree skrims, epic video and amazing footage, love to see Cory ripping the GC!!! I’ve known Dustin since he was a grom, good job everybody!
Where there is stoke the swell will be. Stoked for the bucs. Stoked for groundswell fron Francine. Stoked to support the surf report Thursday. Afternoon delight. Thou shalt giveth, then receive it. ???????? shakas and prayers.
best south facer showing clean south lines knee high sets at 4pm tuesday
of all the times we need the buoy to work– a micro groundswell event…
I was watching Denis Phillips, and he says the storm is shifting slightly east. That should help the swell push a little more our way. 😀 I am off all week and hope this all pans out for us.
waves look fun Wed PM- your right Russ D
I miss having the close buoys to look at first thing in the a.m. Egmont being down really sucks. I guess it is coffee and head out to the beach time. Like the good old days. If you want to know you got to go. 😀
took the day off. it is pumping…
it was mackin w head high plus sets and some kinda fat makeable barrels w some maneuverable punchy lines on the outgoing tide. slowed down some and dropped in size for the most part locally at mid tide but my best session here in god knows how long…cheers…
“Hey, good morning, chest to head high, looking solid”
“This is one of the best days on the gulf in years“
my phone blowing up this am!!! gracias amigos wish i was there surfing with you
gimme your report! stoke me out! best gulf day in forever? cams look amazing!!
It was super fun this morning into early afternoon. I am beyond beat up and tired from surfing this one. At some point, my board popped me in my knee cap and now I can’t walk very well, there is something lodged in my left eye and it won’t come out(so far), my right shoulder hurts, and I can’t be more content. 😀 The waves today were solid and fun. It’s the best swell I have surfed in quite some time but I do not get out there all that often nowadays.
Fun – but faded overnight. I got a dawn patrol sesh though. Waist (mostly) but some occasional bigger ones rolled through. No real wind to factor in but there was enough when the sun came up to put texture on the faces.
I’m surfed out.
I had to go to the ER today to get out whatever got in my eye yesterday. They said it looked like large grains of sharp/jagged-edged sand. My eye feels a lot better now but it definitely scratched it and still feels rough. How many of you have had something lodged in your eye from surfing? A few years ago I felt something go in my eye at Sand Key but it didn’t feel like it was there when I got home. I assumed the water rinsed it out while I was surfing. 3 days later I woke up and felt something in my eye that hurt. I flushed it with water and the tiniest little shell came out, LOL. I couldn’t believe it was in there for 3 days and I didn’t feel it. I guess we have to pay to play. 😀
p.s. did y’all see the pics from North Jetty in Nokomis of the dude that got swept into or off of the rocks? He looked pretty banged up. Rocks don’t play. Be safe ya’ll.
thanks for the reports guys, what a swell from Francine!!
Yoooo Russssssss. Glad to hear they got it out of your eye. Never had anything stuck in my eye from surfing. Sounds like you’re getting beat up. I threw out my back so I was bummed I had to stay out of the water. Got tons of pics and video tho. Saw your co-owner of your cabinet company on the road. Dude has red hair. You guys are the freckle committee. He was supposed to say what’s up from me. Hope you’re doing well old friend. Come visit us up in north county sometime.