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(Previous) 08/01/2006 (Next)
Shadowed SW swell on tap.
By now, I'm sure many of you have heard about the upcoming SW swell, and the how we have termed it 'shadowed' in some regions.
Continued below...
So what exactly does that mean? In the case of the SW swell from 210-220 degrees later this week it means a couple of things. First, the storm that created this swell was directly behind the Tahiti shadow. So Tahiti went off- Check it out here- and zapped much of the swell's energy.

Second, this particular swell will encounter a lot of blockage from the nearshore islands. Because of this, certain spots/regions that might normally be good on Southern Hemi swell will be smallish, while other and more obscure spots will be solid.

Venice Beach is shown on this animation and obviously will be strong, although likely walled (surprise, surprise). For a look at other hot and cold spots on the new swell, be sure to check the rest of LOLA's SoCal nearshore animations

-Kevin Wallis

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LOLA is the world's only automated global surf forecasting tool. LOLA can forecast waves right down the street, or it can predict surf conditions at the top spots around the globe - breaks like Tavarua, Tahiti and Jeffrey's Bay.

LOLA uses the NOAA Wavewatch III engine (running on our own computers) with Surfline-modified data from various wind models (AVN, GFS, MRF). Then LOLA combines this information with empirical data we've programmed into her gained from over 30 years of surf and weather analysis here at Surfline.

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