For Surfers, a February to Remember

You’ll hear no complaints from surfers about February, 1995--at least so far.

Storms out of the northwest Pacific Ocean, sweeping in from an unusual direction, have kept the surf pumping all month, and Tuesday was no exception.

After a slight lull Sunday, a new swell arrived Tuesday morning and pushed waves with eight- to 10-foot faces to many Orange County beaches, much to the delight of the surfing faithful.

“It’s good, it’s really good,” said Hans Sylstra, 25, of San Clemente before charging into the lineup at Trafalgar Street--better known as “T” Street--just south of the San Clemente pier. “Friday was the best day, Thursday was good and Saturday was still pretty fun.”

Typically, the Southland surf has only two- to three-foot faces this time of year.

John Parmenter, former U.S. professional surfing champion from Huntington Beach, said it’s been “possibly the best week of surfing we’ve had in Orange County in many years.”

Tuesday’s distant storm was reminiscent in size and scope of an earlier storm that peaked last Friday, considered an epic day in local surfing lore. The unseasonal heat, lack of wind and huge swell made Friday the best day in recent memory, surfers said.

“On a scale of one to 10, Friday was a 10. It was all-time,” said Sean Collins of Seal Beach, surf forecaster for Surfline/Wavetrak, a company that watches ocean storms. “Today is a little smaller than Friday, but we are still getting reports of five to eight feet in many areas with occasional 10-footers.”

Collins said the latest storm probably peaked Tuesday, but the high waves should continue most of the week and another storm could be headed Orange County’s way by Sunday. The early reports showed the new storm off Japan to be generating about 50 knots of wind and 42-foot seas, Collins said.

“It should be pretty good, maybe not as large as what we’ve had, but the waves should definitely be in the head-high range, probably a couple of feet overhead,” Collins said.

The cause of the month’s large surf has been an unusual storm system that sweeps into the coast from offshore much farther south than is typical for this time of year, Collins said. Normally, the storms and waves descend from the northwest, causing swells that roll into the coast and are blocked by Point Conception and the Channel Islands, he said.

But this year, with the system much farther south, the swells are hitting the coast directly from the west without any interference, Collins said.

“Point Conception and the islands act as breakwaters, really, which break up much of the swell energy,” Collins said. “But when the storm track drops south, we get a long unimpeded runway . . . which translates into larger surf.”

Because of the swell direction, Huntington Beach, Salt Creek and San Clemente seemed to be getting the most wave action Tuesday, said lifeguards, who reported sets “well overhead” at all three beaches.

An incoming tide, which typically brings a surge in the surf, had the waves “really banging,” said Steve Lashbrook, a marine safety officer at San Clemente.

For Chad Dahlke, 20, of Dana Point, a seven-day-a-week surfer, the good wave conditions prompted him to put in a two-hour surf session Tuesday.

“The summer was so bad, but now it’s been so good for really the past month,” a dripping wet Dahlke said Tuesday at T Street. “I was getting some 100-yard rides out there.”