September in November – Plenty of Surf for Puerto Rico

November Outlook: We have an ocean full of heat and a northern hemisphere trying desperately to cool off. Seasonally, we will start to see more fronts pull off the Eastern US this time of year. The high heat in the Atlantic combined with the unending march of tropical waves off Africa means that we will continue to see tropical disturbances from lower latitudes pulled north and interact with the frontal systems. The end result is a consistent flow of surf. Not the best quality of surf at times. Swell generated from multiple systems tend to make for challenging beach conditions when everything doesn’t line up just right, but hey – at least we’re not going to be flat. The tropics interacting with cold-fronts is generally a September type of scenario, but we’re seeing it happen right now at the end of October into the start of November. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised to see a hurricane form in December.

Near Term: Puerto Rico will continue to see smaller scale surf all week. The wind flow will most likely remain dead in the mornings and south in the afternoons. We can all hope for more rain in Rincon as satellite imagery is showing a lot of moisture on it’s way to the island. The tide sensitive spots will also be the best bet for getting a little more size throughout the background swell fluctuations. My advice is the mid-high to high incoming stretch at shallower breaks. Have fun!

Hurricane Lee Massive Storm, Massive Surf.

Now that’s what I call a windfield! It’s easy to get caught up in just the wind speed, the low pressure, or the category strength of a storm. Unfortunatley, all of that doesn’t matter much if the wind field is small. In the case of Hurricane Lee, such a large wind-field affects more of the ocean and as a result creates more swell in all directions. It is also not lacking in high wind, low pressure, and a major hurricane. What I’m getting at is today and tomorrow will most likely be double overhead and even bigger at more exposed locations. In other good news, as the storm moves away, we will have another 5 days or so of decent surf on the slow decline. Plenty of good sessions to be had. The other good news is that by that time we’ll be looking at the next long track storm with the next possible swell.

Hurricane Lee is About to Lay Some Massive Surf Down!

It’s September and we finally had a drop in the wind shear with a long track storm that pulled off Africa. With the insanely hot water temps, and no wind shear around, Hurricane Lee turned into a Category 5 Hurricane overnight. Intensity will fluctuate randomly from this point, but the wind-field will continue to expand and the eye of the storm will go through regular replacement cycles. The forecast path of the storm basically has it meandering right in our swell window. High surf advisories will be in effect. This swell is going to rage. I am pretty amped that we’ve had very consistent surf without the usual crowds that have destroyed my stoke the past few seasons. I got to surf a few days ago without having to dodge a single foam board. It was amazing. We should have literally a week of perfect waves (maybe longer) from this storm once the swell shows up. The north side of the island will see the goodies first, probably at the end of the weekend. Then starting next week we should have some NE angled long period swell for most of next week in the head high to a couple feet overhead range. If Lee really does stay due north of the island and continue to pump, we could see some N and NNW long period swell show up next weekend. We could easily see some double-overhead action. There will be plenty of spots to surf and the vibe is finally pretty chill right now. Don’t mess that up. Everyone play nice and have fun.

Multiple Tropical Systems Finally Give Rincon, PR Surf!

2023 and this is what we need to finally get some decent surf – three large tropical weather systems and a powerful trough to push them eastward. We’ve had Hurricane Franklin as a huge storm right in our swell window for a long time. I can remember weaker storms being in the same place doing the same thing and having waves for weeks. I have no idea why the earth doesn’t like to give Rincon waves this Hurricane Season, but all of that is about to change. Starting from today we should see at least a week of solid chest to head high surf with some bigger days scattered in. The tides will be important. Tropical swell tends like incoming tides. The varying water levels at the beach will also affect the breaking wave though so a lot of spots might be bigger on the incoming tide, but closing out more unless you know the right chunk of reef or sand bar that will be working well with all that extra water. The multiple storms will also result in multiple swells which will sometimes play nice with each other, and sometimes will get in each other’s way. Though we will have good waves, there will still be lulls and fluctuations. Stay patient, spread out, and have fun.

Hurricane Nicole will continue to send surf our way!

Wow what a storm! Even though she will be going extra-tropical over the next few days she will remain a massive weather system with heavy winds across much of the North Atlantic. Here’s what the NHC has to say about it:

Swells from Nicole will affect Bermuda and portions of the U.S. east coast and Atlantic Canada during the next couple of days. By early next week, wave models suggest that long-period swell from Nicole will radiate outward and affect much of the North Atlantic basin.

So basically, get ready to surf some more! The only downside to all of this is that the winds are forecast to stay out of the south which means that temperatures will be hot, hot, hot! However, as far as surf goes, it will be EPIC! A lot of north facing spots will be all time once again and a lot of the exposed spots on the north side of the island that can throw a barrel will be all-time. I hope to get some good coverage on this swell. Keep checking the galleries.

Hurricane Nicole Gives Us More Surf!

Enjoy the nonstop swell people. It’s been a long hot summer. Hurricane Nicole has just been sitting right in our swell window and strengthening. As the swell from the cold-front that ate Matthew fades out, we should have plenty of hurricane swell filling in. Expect conditions to remain overhead through the rest of the week and at least chest high over the weekend. Then next week we could see another round of long period swell when Nicole goes extra-tropical and merges with a cold front. What an amazing setup we have right now. Now go surf!

The surf in Puerto Rico has been fairly weak and inconsistent this past Summer. It was hot, flat, and miserable. When all hope seemed lost. Hurricane Gonzalo showed up. He survived intense wind shear on his path across the Atlantic until he found a little bubble of low shear and high heat. What happened next was beautiful. He crept right into our swell window, strengthened in a Category 4 Hurricane, and dumped solid swell at us for almost an entire week, all while keeping the winds offshore the entire time for North facing beaches. I still can’t believe it. Every day I would wake up and shoot the report expecting either a drop in size or some change it wind, but it was just perfect every single day of the swell. With so many spots working and offshore winds blowing all day, there was plenty of opportunities to surf with light crowds and it was great!