Thanksgiving Weekend Swell Hits California

The same swell that smashed Hawaii on Black Friday made its way to the Golden State over Thanksgiving weekend. First stop: Ocean Beach, San Francisco, which saw one of the best four-day runs of surf seen here in years. Mavericks didn't go nuts, but a few very solid waves broke on the bowl at low tide on Saturday. And while nowhere went absolutely crazy, the rest of the coast saw fun moments throughout the weekend due in part to lovely local conditions.
Speaking of the swell, we asked Director of Forecasting Kevin Wallis to break it down for us. “It was the product of a hurricane-force storm that rapidly developed in the Northwest Pacific early in the week of Thanksgiving,” he said. “A large area of 40-55 knot wind developed thanks to the interaction of the deep low pressure system and trailing high pressure to the southwest. Peak wind was more than 65 knots. The strong wind in turn set up seas that topped 50 feet, well aimed at California. The thing that kept this swell from truly going into the XXL range was the distance from California – around 2400 miles when it was strongest. The greater the distance a swell must travel once it leaves the storm, the more it will decay.

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