Breaking So.Cal news !

Here's how the day-to-day is breaking down so far:

Monday the 2nd is expected to run head high to 2' overhead at most west facing breaks when the NW swell arrives, traveling from north to south during the day with ETAs of SB pre dawn; VC dawn; LA early to mid AM; OC late AM; and SD early afternoon.

Tuesday the 3rd is expected to run chest to head high (max) at west facing breaks in the early AM, with swell backing off in the afternoon.

Wednesday the 4th should run waist high at west facing breaks.

Thursday the 5th looks about waist high at west facing breaks.

Friday the 6th looks about waist high at west facing breaks.

Saturday the 7th, so far, should run 2-4' overhead at most west facing breaks when the NW swell arrives, traveling from north to south during the day with ETAs of predawn north of LA, around dawn in LA, and then mid to late AM in OC and SD

Sunday the 8th, so far, is expected to run head high at west facing breaks.

Monday the 9th, so far, is expected to run waist to chest high at west facing breaks.

Tuesday the 10th, so far, will likely run waist high at west facing breaks.

Wednesday the 11th and/or Thursday the 12th is the next NW swell's ETA. More on that in my next report.
 
Kob, In my approaching-40-yrs. of beach storm erosion, I'm the first to admit that my standards have become picky. I spent many many years "rushing to the beach" after each sprinkle of rain, and any wind or surfer report. And perpetually asked myself, after each lame event : "What were/are the ingredients involved ? "

Bear in mind that I've seen events where you can spend 3 hrs, in an area no bigger than your living room, and never lack for signals to choose from (multiple coins in each basket). So I have admittedly gotten "picky".

A buddy of mine was out yesterday at one of our local beaches, and got 175 coins, and a single 2.2 gram 10k gold ring . But he is VERY SKILLED. And .... the average person in the same zone, would have gotten perhaps 60 to 70 coins . And both he and I would agree that .... it was more or less "random". Thus ... not a newsworthy event.

Perhaps So. CA is different.

As for the "8 to 12" : In my area, is going to be for the W and NW facing beaches. And those type heights , for NW facing beaches, are very normative. Ie.: the N and NW facing beaches are acclimated to those heights. Hence we typically wait for 15 ft or better, combined with 5.5 ft or better high tides, for our N to NW facing beaches.

As for the potential "reverberation" (ie.: "wrap-around") to affect SW facing beaches : Yes : We still take a curious look at our SW facing beaches (Santa Cruz main beach, in particular), following severe NW swells. But any erosion , after NW events there, will be subtle. And all clad. Nothing that I'd drive an hour to get to. So we usually wait for multiple-days of S to SW swells to really start studying our SW beaches. But as I say, that's just me, d/t I'm spoiled.

As to the "4 or 5 days", after today, you guys are bathed in a series of calm seas. Not sure what surfer /mariner sites you are looking at. Here's some links I'm using :

https://cdip.ucsd.edu/recent/model_images/socal_now.png

Notice on this one, you can actually see the color impacts, of NW. Ie.: how Santa Barbara (pt conception) to the north will "shadow" you, from NW direction. Also the channel Island "shadows". Contrast to if it was from the S to SW, you can see that your beaches are left un-protected.


http://cdip.ucsd.edu/m/forecast/

This is a forward looking model of the same thing. You can slow it down and click on individual hour-/day markers.

Thanks for all the tips Tom. You may have forgotten , but I have done this just as long as you. Maybe more. I can hold my own against anybody. But still willing to learn something. I agree with about 95% of what you posted. Didn't know you need 15' though , but I don't know your beaches. Yeah your spoiled , burnt out , etc. I get it. I have hunted many times in pockets where you can barely move your detector and its coins or jewelry.
BUT , I still get pumped when in less than 24hrs the surf will double or triple in size. That tells me something. Even if it's only for a couple days. I just love the beach and ocean life !
Sounds like your waiting for the next hurricane "Marie". Those don't happen often. The last one , there were 6 of us hunting. Spread out about 1 mile. The cut was 6' vertical spanning the entire beach , a straight line cut. Each guy had at least 5 pieces of gold. It was nuts.
 
..... Each guy had at least 5 pieces of gold. It was nuts.

Luv those war stories.

One of the thick episodes I recall, is where we were getting SO many coins (as fast as you could dig them), that we eventually got to where we passed all penny/dime & up signals. Only dug zinc and down signals. Yup, kiss silver dimes and silver quarters goodbye. And since there was no zinc (all light weight targets washed out), that only left beach-tumbler pennies and dimes (sandblasted thinner so they had lower TID's), and nickels.

In this way, we hoped to up our gold ring counts. And it worked. We had upwards of 5 to 7 gold rings each.

I'd venture to say, if we'd have not been notching like that, we have easily have pushed 400 to 500 coins each. Utterly sickening.

Another time I remember standing in one spot for nearly an hour, without moving more than 5 ft. in any direction. And every beep/scoop for that hour, had *at least* 2 coins in the scoop. Ie.: each scoop was multiple coins d/t I was in geologic bedrock tidepool pockets, that had trapped all the targets. So much so, that I recall at one time getting only a single coin in the scoop and thinking : "Bummer, time to move over 3 steps away to a fresh spot . Doh !
 
I first started metal detecting 49 years ago so it's hard for me to remember specific details of past hunts but I do remember going to the beach years ago with 3 detecting buddies who were all much older than me. As the sun went down and the tide started to go out we all started to find gold rings about the same time.
We each wound up with at least five gold rings and, afterwards, I remember that we went to some hot dog place to pig out. At the time gold was probably less than $100 an ounce and I probably enjoyed finding silver coins as much as gold jewelry.
One of those other hunters from that day passed away recently, another no longer has the strength to detect and another I have long lost track of- might be KOB or some other old-timer on this forum! :lol:
 
Luv those war stories.

One of the thick episodes I recall, is where we were getting SO many coins (as fast as you could dig them), that we eventually got to where we passed all penny/dime & up signals. Only dug zinc and down signals. Yup, kiss silver dimes and silver quarters goodbye. And since there was no zinc (all light weight targets washed out), that only left beach-tumbler pennies and dimes (sandblasted thinner so they had lower TID's), and nickels.

In this way, we hoped to up our gold ring counts. And it worked. We had upwards of 5 to 7 gold rings each.

I'd venture to say, if we'd have not been notching like that, we have easily have pushed 400 to 500 coins each. Utterly sickening.

Another time I remember standing in one spot for nearly an hour, without moving more than 5 ft. in any direction. And every beep/scoop for that hour, had *at least* 2 coins in the scoop. Ie.: each scoop was multiple coins d/t I was in geologic bedrock tidepool pockets, that had trapped all the targets. So much so, that I recall at one time getting only a single coin in the scoop and thinking : "Bummer, time to move over 3 steps away to a fresh spot . Doh !

Periodically I still hit coin areas like this Tom. But the gold isn't in abundance as it once was ! My thought of late has been : when its thick like that , why not have some kind of large screen sifter of sorts ? Like a wagon with screen. Or on 2x4s or something. Just shovel it in and smooth it out. Don't even need a detector really when it's that thick.
 
Back
Top Bottom