XXL New Year's Swell On The Way For Northern California This Week
El Niño is finally starting to crank in the Pacific and it looks like 2024 is going to start with a bang as a series of large northwest swells are forecast to hammer the Northern and Central California coast. The National Weather Service, who has issued a High Surf Advisory, is calling for wave heights to be somewhere between 20 to 26 feet on Thursday, December 28.
“Models not quite as over the top as indicated a few days ago, but replaced with multiple (I count 5) 40 ft plus sea producing storms over the next 7 days,” reports Mark Sponsler at StormSurf.com. “The ocean will be 'a-churning'! This image depicts all significant wave height over 20 ft forecast in the North Pacific for the 7 day period starting now.”
Given the more westerly tract the swell-producing swells and a solid interval, expect Maverick’s to be a focal point for a lot of the action as most surf spots, especially beachbreaks, won’t be able to hold the size. After a run of surf over the Christmas holiday, at the moment, Surfline is calling for Maverick’s to hit 25- to 30-foot on Thursday. And while the northern part of the state will be challenging, spots south of Point Conception that love a good west swell should see a pretty fun run of sizable surf.
With a number of swells lining up back to back in the North Pacific, it certainly looks like there’s going to be no shortage of waves to help ring in 2024. Just remember, if you're headed out to the coast to check out the action, angry seas like this don't play around. Be smart and be safe out there.
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With more than 25 years of writing about surfing, the ocean and action sports, Jake Howard continues to share stories, profiles and issues that shape the surfing world. One of the premier subject-matter experts in the field today, he's savvy in the ways of print, digital and social media, his breadth of work is expansive. Getting his start writing Surfline surf reports and recording the phone reports for 976-SURF in the late '90s, Jake served as the managing editor for Surfer Magazine in the early 2000s before moving on to launch RedBullSurfing.com and cover surfing for ESPN and the X Games. Over the years, Jake has also enjoyed time behind the edit desk at The Surfer's Journal, as well as the World Surf League, where he worked as the Senior Editor for a number of years. Beyond producing editorial content, Jake has served as a digital marketer and copywriter for iconic surf brands such as Quiksilver, Roxy and Rip Curl. Writing thousands of pages of copy for Surfline, he has deep SEO experience as well. The surf columnist for the San Clemente Times, Jake continues to dedicate himself to the culture and history of the sport through his involvement with the Surfing Heritage and Culture Center in San Clemente.