Swell Forecast Monterey bay

[Chuck Tribolet]

I've seen it slosh up the Lobos ramp and across the road on a relatively
benign day with the highest (and lowest) tides of the year.

Gombessa has it right that the forecasts are for outside the bay. That lets
you see what Neptune is sending at you. By and by you learn what your
personal comfort range is. Me, I'm a photographer, and I don't like surge,
and I don't like stirred-up sand all over my O-rings. Needing a certain
number of days for home and vehicle maintenance, I've found that, FOR ME,
it's best to stay home if it's a NW swell above 8 feet, or a W swell above
10 feet.

It's also worth learning to read the other models on my page. They are
aren't as simple as the NOAA offshore coastal and marine forecast, but
particularly the Navy WW3 model, are often earlier with a change and
more accurate.

Me: I'm going to fix a dining room chair and do some maintenance on my
Corvette today. Maybe some yardwork if the sun comes out.

 

[Guy Alcala]

Remember, the models from Chuck's page are generally outside of the bay. An 8-10ft prediction is usually less than half that by the time it hits a protected spot like Breakwater or Whaler's Cove, depending on the direction of the swell.

While I haven't been there to see breakers actually crashing over the rocks to the parking lot, it does happen, and I don't think it takes a genius to make a common sense call not to dive in those conditions

I have seen water slosh up past the ramp at high tide and wash over the first couple of parking spots to the left and the low sheds across the lot. I think that was a 13-15ft prediction day, and half of us decided not to dive (and the other half had a great dive).

But 8-10ft? Always worth driving down IMO. For those boat diving, I think the tolerances are lower because you're likely to be out further than the protection of the shoreline, and this is right at the edge of where guys like Chuck don't bother going out.

For shore diving (which I do more than boat diving), I tend to find the Monterey Bay forecast more applicable than the Coastal Waters one, although I usually check both. And I find the Hopkins Buoy (Cabrillo Pt. - 46240) to be more useful for the swell heights along the beaches in Monterey Bay, although I always listen to the Waverider and Bay buoy reports too.

Guy

 

[pacificgal]

People did dive at Breakwater and Lobos today, but in the group I was in at Lobos, more than half of us decided against it. It was the courageous women who decided to brave it (I was the only one that didn't...decided I didn't want to put on a cold, wet, wetsuit for a dive that could be challenging due to surge and low viz). Viz didn't turn out to be so bad, MikeMills, KathyDee and DocWong all went out, and as far as I could tell everyone did just fine. Wasn't there for Kathy and Doc's return. In the bay it was surgy, outside the bay the swells were really big.
I did get to check out the museum at Whaler's Cove for the first time, neat place, interesting video inside and it's warm in there.

 

[mikeguerrero]

Wow,

Sounds like the conditions of my BW nightmare are back... Tap me out of any of those dives...

 

[Peter_C]

We drove by the BW tonight, and it was fairly flat with just a little wind chop. Looked totally diveable and there was actually a couple people out night diving.

 

[Gombessa]

No video today, forgot the camera. But Whalers Cove was full of cappuccino foam and we watched some impressive breakers crash over cannery point. Certainly can't fault anyone from calling it due to surface conditions.

Despite the large swells, the ramp looked fairly calm at high tide and things did look manageable, so we headed out with a plan to visit the Sisters, getting a bit deeper and out of the cove for the best chance at good viz.

We never even got close. We descended after a short surface swim and made for Hole in the Wall. After not seeing anything familiar for half an hour and finally ascending, we found ourselves just short of Granite Point Wall. Yikes. Every time we descended and reascended, we found ourselves being pushed east. A combination of extremely poor navigation and prevailing current I guess.

Anyways, we had a perfectly pleasant dive near the mouth of the cove and Middle Reef. 76fsw, 143 min. Viz was about 15ft throughout, and surprisingly nice inside of Whalers Cove. We were also able to meet a couple of groups in town from SoCal and the north coast. We were so slow that most of the people we met in the morning had already dove, packed up and headed out by the time we exited the water!

 

[pacificgal]

Darn it Kenn, missed you again. Maybe you should start walking around introducing yourself to the ladies?

 

[pacificgal]

You need to put bunny ears on your car so that you're easily found :lilbunny:

 

[mikemill]

Did BW tonight and it was pretty surgy but the worse part was the huge floating island of kelp that just surrounded us on the surface swim back in.

 

[jenth]

Anyways, we had a perfectly pleasant dive near the mouth of the cove and Middle Reef. 76fsw, 143 min. Viz was about 15ft throughout, and surprisingly nice inside of Whalers Cove. We were also able to meet a couple of groups in town from SoCal and the north coast. We were so slow that most of the people we met in the morning had already dove, packed up and headed out by the time we exited the water!

Kenn, it was nice meeting you and Steve topside that morning. Chris and I were able to scooter out to the three sisters...but our dive was only 70 minutes long. Even with the doubles, you must have an amazing sac rate to be down there for 143 minutes!! Sorry we missed you on our way out! Most of us decided that it wasn't worth a second dive and headed out for lunch and a few went to the aquarium.

Hopefully we'll be able to catch you next time. Lobos is definitely going to be a trip we make 2-3 times per year. And obviously, if you ever head down to LA, we'd all be happy to show you around.