Alaska Storms Send County Its Biggest Surf of the Year

While the East Coast shivers under freezing temperatures, in Orange County the biggest surf of the year has pounded the shores of “Surf City” with waves up to 10 feet.

After two days of high surf, meteorologists predict even bigger waves today, thrilling surfers who have had a lackluster season until now.

“The surfers are probably happy to see a decent-sized swell out here,” said Huntington Beach lifeguard Kai Weisser, keeping an eye out for inexperienced surfers straying too close to the barnacle-laden pilings of the pier. “They’ve been a bit deprived.”

By noon Tuesday, Weisser had counted three surfboards snapped in half by the heart-stopping surf.

A series of storms in the Gulf of Alaska are blowing the big surf to California shores, according to Chris Borg, a meteorologist with Surfline/Wavetrak, a Huntington Beach surf forecasting service. In Central and Northern California, waves have reached 20 feet during the past two days.

“We’re going to do it all over again,” Borg said Tuesday. “There was another storm in the same areas with the same intensity. It’s generated another swell.”

Borg predicts the big surf will peak today but continue to generate large waves through Thursday.

Although the surf was bigger Monday, reaching 10 feet at Huntington Beach, it was still high Tuesday, hitting the 8-foot mark at Huntington Beach and 6 feet near the Newport Beach Pier and at San Clemente.

Surf forecasters predict waves will again reach 10 feet on the Orange County coast today.

That’s just fine for Downey real estate broker Brian Richey, 30, who spent Tuesday morning shooting the pier at Huntington Beach.

“This is real challenging surf,” said Richey, pointing to where his 9-foot surfboard was gashed after it broke loose and slammed into several pier pilings. “It’s fun,” he said. “I don’t hit them too often.”