It’s Christmas evening and I can’t help but share a little of the cheer I’m feeling about this forecast. It is giving me goosebumps and shivers, but in a good nervous anticipation kind of way.

BARREN ISLANDS AND KAMISHAK BAY WATERS
945 PM AKST THU DEC 25 2008

...STORM WARNING THROUGH FRIDAY NIGHT...
...HEAVY FREEZING SPRAY WARNING THROUGH FRIDAY NIGHT...
.TONIGHT...WEST OF THE BARREN ISLANDS...NW WIND 55 KT. SEAS 8 FT
BUILDING TO 15 FT AFTER MIDNIGHT. HEAVY FREEZING SPRAY. EAST OF
THE BARREN ISLANDS...NW WIND 35 KT INCREASING TO 55 KT AFTER
MIDNIGHT. SEAS 18 FT. GUSTS TO 70 KT AFTER MIDNIGHT. HEAVY FREEZING
SPRAY.
.FRI...NW WIND 55 KT. SEAS 24 FT. GUSTS TO 70 KT. HEAVY FREEZING
SPRAY.
.FRI NIGHT...NW WIND 50 KT. SEAS 24 FT. GUSTS TO 65 KT IN THE
EVENING. HEAVY FREEZING SPRAY.
.SAT...NW WIND 45 KT. SEAS 17 FT.
.SAT NIGHT...NW WIND 35 KT. SEAS 11 FT.
.SUN THROUGH TUE...N WIND 30 KT. SEAS 9 FT.

There is a Homer surf forecast if I’ve ever seen one. It looks like we have a chance at decent wind conditions on the Homer beaches as well. Though I won’t be expecting clean lines with offshore breezes, it’s not predicting the straight onshore gales we’ve seen lately.

A quick pre-surf snap of break before 10/8/08 3.5hr surf session.

October is traditionally the time that weather patterns begin to shift around my hometown of Homer, Alaska. Along with a bunch of rain, cold weather, and slush, October brings the first real westerly winds that push waves into the Kachemak Bay. After about five months with very very little to no surf, all of a sudden there’s a chance of a lump rolling onto the beaches.  This is a great time of year to surf as much as possible in Alaska since the water is relatively warm (just above 50 degrees Fahrenheit) and you can’t complain about the air temps either.

I just returned from a week of surfing in Yakutat (more on this later) where it’s much warmer both in the water and out. After a nice two day break for my sore back and arms, Tuesday (10/7/08) brought some head high faces crashing into Homer. There was a record number of surfers in the water despite the close-out beach break conditions. The photo above was taken before I ran down the beach and paddled out. As the tide rose and the hours ticked by conditions improved and we actually ended up with some pretty nice clean barrels. Fast steep drops followed by a nice cool water sinus flush.

The next morning was even better – that report is next.