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BILLABONG PRO MUNDAKA: DAY TWO
Flat ocean forces layday; surfers scatter while ASP preps for historic board meeting
Starting out R1 on the first day of the waiting period at Mundaka was almost too good to be true, and today, the reality of the Atlantic set in. Surfers and organizers were greeted with a flat ocean and a perfectly formed sandbar, hovering just under the surface -- waiting for some swell.
And things aren't changing overnight.
Surfline's official forecast summary goes like this: "Flat on Wednesday and into Thursday with a new pulse of small NW swell due late Thursday/Friday. Then bigger surf is lining up for later this weekend and early next week, but wind conditions are not looking favorable." (See below for detailed forecast.)
Meanwhile, apart from eating tapas and downing vino tinto, the hot topic of day is still the so-called "Champion's Tour". When we asked surfers about how they'd improve the ASP for our Mundaka Preview, there were a bunch of different suggestions, but Bede Durbidge pretty much summed up the general sentiment: "More media and coverage and more money," he said simply, which is what the Champs Tour has reportedly offered.
A big ASP Board Meeting is scheduled here for sometime in the next week or so, and you can imagine there will be a few interesting discussions about the new tour -- as well as improvements to the existing one. Being the curious types, we asked the ASP about it, but they were tight-lipped. "No details on meeting -- it's closed to press," they explained. A release will be issued after the meeting, and we'll do our best to report on what went down and what it means for the rest of the year and into next.
Stay tuned.
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SURFLINE'S OFFICIAL BILLABONG PRO MUNDAKA FORECAST, effective October 6th, 2009
--Jonathan Warren
WEDNESDAY 7th
SWELL/SURF: Flat...
WIND/CONDITIONS: South-SSW winds.
THURSDAY 8th
SWELL/SURF: Flat through the morning. New NW swell starts to fill in over the afternoon/night. Starting to show small knee high lines on the early afternoon low tide, but becoming swamped out and flat as the deep high tide moves in.
WIND/CONDITIONS: Front passes through. Moderate WSW winds veering West-WNW, clearing weather.
FRIDAY 9th
SWELL/SURF: Small NW swell peaks in the early morning. Swell easing through the day with mostly knee-waist high waves showing through the lower tide window, few slightly bigger waves on occasion.
WIND/CONDITIONS: Light-moderate West-WNW winds all day.
SATURDAY 10th
SWELL/SURF: Small WNW windswell/chop makes it in to provide waves in the knee-waist high range. Old NW swell fades out.
WIND/CONDITIONS: Breezy WNW winds.
SUNDAY 11th
SWELL/SURF: More WNW-NW windswell/chop shows with building NW and WNW groundswells mixing in. Waist-shoulder high surf will show through the morning, but increasing into the afternoon/evening with chest-overhead sets.
WIND/CONDITIONS: Strong WNW-NW winds.
DISCUSSION + LONG-RANGE FORECAST
A new storm/fetch has recently developed up around the northern rim of the North Atlantic between Greenland and Iceland, which will send down a small pulse of NW swell (315-325) for late Thursday and Friday. This swell will fill in over Thursday afternoon, but only showing small knee high lines through the early afternoon low tide at Mundaka. Then as the swell continues to slowly fill in, the high tide will fill in as well to swamp out the small waves for flat conditions. Swell peaks very late Thursday night/early Friday before slowly easing throughout Friday. Starting out basically flat early Friday morning on the deep high tide, look for knee-waist+ waves to show during the lower tide window. This swell fades out going into Saturday.
Over this week, a couple developing frontal LOWs will move off North America, one of which will sweep through the North Atlantic toward Iceland as the other tracks into the central NATL and weakens. Meanwhile, a ridge of high pressure will extend over the Azores and off the west coast of Spain/Portugal. Over the next 48hrs, we're looking for back to back modest groundswells (WNW 285-295deg and West 270-285deg) to develop by these storms, which would then arrive into Europe Sunday afternoon the 11th through Tuesday the 13th. *Keep in mind, the more west, the more these swells would need to wrap into Mundaka, thus expending energy (aka, loosing size). Ideally, we need these swells to develop further north over 290deg for Mundaka. Now, as the first LOW tracks toward Iceland, it will continue to push out swell (WNW gradually shifting NW and a better angle for Mundaka). As the storm moves in under Iceland, it will interact further with the area of high pressure to the south and set-up a small dose of local WNW windswell/chop on Saturday the 10th, then even more/bigger WNW-NW windswell/chop over Sunday the 11th and into next week. In addition, we're looking for a much stronger fetch to 'possibly' develop between Iceland and Greenland by the 10th (if not sooner), which
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October 6, 2009
