Surf forecast Sunday 19th February 2012 @ 1915. Surf forecast window 19th-23rd Feb 2012

Strengthening SW winds through the week as we enter a SW airflow. Shelter the go.

Synoptic situation – High (1030mb) off Ireland moves east. Low (989mb) far Atlantic deepens as it moves towards the UK during the week.

Had a bit of a mental week last week, so first time i have had time for a bit to update the forecast. Nothing of any great shakes last week or the weekend just passed. Suddenly much lighter in the evenings so those post work sessions nearly back on the cards. Week ahead is not looking great, small weak windswell for the next few days with onshores, gradually building into more of a groundswell by Wednesday and to the end of the week as the low moves in. Wind direction is looking bang on SW (maybe veering WSW by Thursday), so shelter the go, although won’t be huge – 3ft at these spots. Maybe lighter winds for the weekend, so could be a bit better by then. Check back Thursday for the latest. Finisterre surf forecast was 9 years old last week…!

Low tides 10am/10pm – moving to neaps

KEEP WARM POST SURF WITH OUR MERINO OFFERS check the finisterre website for details.

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….