Finisterre Surf Forecast 24th April 2013 @ 1530. Forecast window 24-30th April 2013.

Fine weather, cooler winds and not much on in the way of swell for the outlook period.

Synoptic situation – High (1043mb) far Atlantic moves east, maintaing central pressure. Low (993mb) North Atlantic fils slightly before drifting south over the UK.

Crumbly onshore wind on 2-3ft today at the open beaches of the North Coast. Might be worth a splash as the sun is out and finally feels if summer may be about to happen. Not a great looking outlook in terms of swell, as we have our first blocking high of the summer that’s going to suck down a cool NNW airflow and short period windwaves for most of the next few days and beyond, with no groundswell to speak of. So make the most of any fun-ish waves today and tomorrow as from the start of the weekend it’s looking in the 2ft range, low period, weak wind waves, not much cop at all. Time to dust down the fishing rods/get the spear fishing stuff ready i’d have said. New spring/summer range is now in, so have a look at the site or swing by the shop here in Aggie if you’re passing.

Low tide 12am/12pm, moving to springs.

SINCE FEBRUARY 2003….

My first ever forecast was back in February 2003 when it was one of the 3 pages of our website – in my bedroom above the surf shop in Aggie. I update it (when I can!) Monday and Thursday am. I feel proud that it’s still part of the brand today.

It mainly focuses on the SW and won’t tell you to go this or that beach at this or that time. It’s more of a general overview of how I think things will pan out over the outlook period and what that means for us surfers on these shores…sometimes it’s awesome and sometimes it sucks, but often just good to get in.

There’s a bunch of links below that I find most useful. For me, reading the pressure charts has always been step 1 – goes back to the old days when all you had was the weather after the BBC news to make the call about a trip. That was 4 seconds you had to see what kind of systems were heading our way, before Michael Fish got in the way! You had to really understand and read the charts. In fact, our first advert was a met office chart for the best surf conditions for the South West UK. I went to the Met Office and scanned through 10 years of archive charts to find this one! The whole thinking was that if you knew charts and understood what this meant, you’d get the ad and get the commitment behind Finisterre and what it is we do.

In this day and age where there is so much info out there, the best swells are still the unexpected ones….every now and then they’ll sneak in and catch everyone off guard….

Best for wavebuoys

Windguru – this is the one that updates live

Best for charts, making your own wind readings and swell orientation

Met office charts

Good friend Des at Constantine Bay does the best daily report that I know….