Incoming Swell to Bring Hurricane Marie-Esque Waves for WSL Finals Day

Dashel Pierson
·2 min read
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The curse may be broken.

Following a season marred by undeniably mediocre waves – during which, in some cases, there was pumping surf just before or just after the event window – the WSL Finals Day at Lower Trestles is lining up perfectly with incoming Hurricane Jova.

Yes, Jay-Z – aka Hova – has blessed the WSL with waves.

Per Surfline Forecaster, Kevin Wallis:

“Hurricane Jova - which is now a Cat 5 storm as of the 8pm update from the @NHC - will set up strong swell over the weekend in Southern California and beyond.

“Surf should be much more widespread than what we saw from Hilary, especially by later Saturday and Sunday as swell direction will be just about straight S and eventually SSW late Sunday into early next week. Stay tuned, we’ll continue to watch Jova closely over the next couple days.”

The aforementioned recent storm, Hurricane Hilary, brought selective waves to Southern California – like in Newport Beach, where Lucas Chumbo got shacked silly.

But this storm could be more of a direct hit; perhaps even similar to the legendary Hurricane Marie, as Mark Sponsler from Storm Surf notes:

“Hurricane Jova Versus Hurricane Marie (8/22-28 2014): Similar tracks with both storms peaking at 140 kts and both in the Southern CA swell window when peak occurred (moving into the NCal window just past the peak). Marie was about 120 nmiles closer and moving about 2 kts per hour slower. The big unknown is how fetch size compared. The larger the fetch, the greater the chance for sea and therefore swell production.”

Looks like the swell peaks on Saturday and Sunday, smack dab in the middle of the contest window. So, which day will the WSL Finals run?

Stay tuned.

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