Aguadilla was raging this morning! The spread out spots more prone to picking up longer period swell from the open ocean were lining up with sets slightly above double overhead. The crowds were a bit intense, but if you were patient the right wave would come to you. Bigger surf offers a unique thrill that I especially love. This swell has been good so far and a bit bigger than I expected. Let’s hope it lasts as long as it’s supposed to.

Weak Front, No Jetstream Dip, Weak Swell

We will stay small to flat for the rest of the week. Late in the weekend into early next week a long period NE swell is supposed to fill in. It probably won’t reach around into Rincon very well but the North side of the island should be going off! Light winds and 3ft NE swell at 15 seconds makes for some fun waves up there at the right spot. It’s a good option for early next week if the swell materializes. Expect some crowds though since Rincon might only get waist high during the pulse and I’m sure plenty of people will be driving North for bigger and better waves. Right now it’s the only thing we have to look forward to.

The Tropics Double Down as Tropical Storm Gonzalo Forms Today

All of this heat has to go somewhere. This summer has been brutally hot. My house is 91 degrees inside until 2am in the morning when it finally makes a quick drop down to more comfortable temps. This summer has been extremely hot and stagnant. This October has been extremely hot and stagnant. When the wind shear finally formed a bubble of weakness, it seems like tropical waves were ready to feed off all that heat! They have a banquet of heat! Tropical Storm Fay was happy to feed off that heat and now so is Tropical Storm Gonzalo.

Tropical Storm Fay will interact with a cold-front and go extra-tropical soon. All that commotion in the Northern Atlantic will throw some longer period NE swell at us. Tropical Storm Gonzalo is the double down. At first he will just serve to keep the winds offshore for North facing beaches, but he’s also forecast to explode just North of Puerto Rico and eventually be a wave-maker for the island as well. Hopefully he will give us some rain and cloud coverage as well. We could use the cool down.

Rincon: Look for the surf to remain waist high for the next couple of days building into Chest to Head High swell for Wednesday. After that, we could see waist to chest high surf persist into the weekend depending on how strong Gonzalo gets.

Isabela/Aguadilla: You should continue to stay chest high and build to a few feet overhead by mid-week. The Easterly movement of the storm on approach will give you the brunt of the early swell. After that, if the swell is predominately NE you will stay chest to head high through next weekend.

Patillas: You’re going to get rocked, but you should be going off as the storm approaches from now until Tuesday.

Surprise! The Tropics Turn on in October

Whether or not this giant disturbance becomes a hurricane or not is kind of irrelevant. Unless it completely disintigrates it will make surf for Puerto Rico. The North coast of the island will get the brunt of the swell due to the angle and movement of the weather system. But it looks like Rincon will get enough of a wrap-around to stay fun all week into the weekend. I can’t believe that this giant beast chugged along through insane wind shear across the Atlantic only to park itself in our swell window which will actually be a considerably lighter shear environment for the storm.

Rincon: Expect waist to chest high NE swell and ENE wrap-around swell to come in from now through the weekend. Some pulses will be bigger as the weather system gets closer. Perfect longboard conditions will persist and some shortboard spots could be working as long as the wind plays nice. The winds are supposed to be pretty light for us pretty much the whole swell event.

Isabela/Aguadilla: You will be going off with plenty of head high surf at the usual prime spots. Some days will see some sets in the 2-4ft overhead range. The winds will be light, but they’re not currently forecast to blow hard South so you might have to look for wind blockage to get glassy conditions. You should have fun surf through the weekend into early next week.

Get Ready to Surf!

I’m glad my forecast from five days ago played out exactly as I hoped (for the most part). Today had some awesome waves! Granted the angle of this swell is still fairly NE (i was hoping for more North), but it’s at least big enough to get many spots working. We should have some fun surf in the waist to chest high range for most of the early to mid-week before fading to complete flatness by next weekend. Due to the NE angle. The North Coast of Puerto Rico will have a lot more size and power than Rincon. Rincon will be Longboarder’s delight for the next three days. On the right tide, some of the shortboard spots should be fun too. I’m just stoked to be able to surf again. I’m also happy the nights are cooling down. The 100 degree temps during the day are still a bummer, but at least it’s cooling down at night.

Rincon: Monday should have some chest to head high surf early and then drop off a bit by sundown. Tuesday will probably have plenty of waist to chest high surf. Wednesday will be small and fade out to flat until the next swell making weather system.

Aguadilla/Isabela: You guys should remain head high plus through tomorrow with chest high sets persistent through most of the week. A possible East swell might show up from a tropical blob as this current swell fades out keeping the surf above chest high up there through next weekend.

Will the 2014 to 2015 season bring us more memorable swells? I sure hope so! Stay tuned to RSR for more galleries and our daily reports.