Gauging ocean conditions

If its WNW direction, SC or Capitola might be fairly well protected from the swell close in.

And since the conditions on Friday are supposed to be similar to Saturday, I'd get on the webcams and see what it looks like.

I always consider forecasts at two locations, 1) forecast at departing & landing location & their corresponding times and 2) forecast at fishing destination (throughout the fishing time).

For Santa Cruz, I launch at the harbor.   Usually landing and departing are not an issue inside the harbor, but I always stop before the mouth to check on swell.  If the wave hit the mid/top of the left jetty, I would think twice about going out.  If I see the wave breaks into the light house, same thing. 

Here is the link to live cam at the mouth of the harbor:
https://www.santacruzharbor.org/harborCams/harborEntrance.html


Here is this week's forecast  around Mile Buoy (about 1 mile out of the harbor, straight right from the mouth of the harbor).  Saturday is very do-able for me.  Alternatively, you can hang a left toward the yellow sailing buoy for rock fish (about 1 mile or less).

http://marine.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lon=-122.03995&lat=36.90889




11 feet at 16 seconds is pretty bad.   One other way to measure if it's OK or not is to see if you are OK being pushed  XX feet upward then back downward ... multiple times.  You can use your height as comparison to gauge how far you will go up and down. 

Good luck!

Just speaking for me, but if I saw 11 feet at 16 seconds, I'd be staying home.

I just fished TRW in seas slightly bigger than this. It sucked. Very few fish caught. We were dumb to try.

Thanks everyone for the help. We're going to postpone til the following Sunday, unless the swell predictions improve for this Sunday.

Anything over 8' gets a big fat nope from me.

For me, my limit is 6-foot swells, and I pay attention to the wind speed and direction.  I've been stuck trying to get back to shore having to paddle against a 12 knot wind at HMB.  I don't enjoy that at all.   

For me, my limit is 6-foot swells, and I pay attention to the wind speed and direction.  I've been stuck trying to get back to shore having to paddle against a 12 knot wind at HMB.  I don't enjoy that at all.

I remember one day at Monterey, Trianglelaguna, my brother, JJQ and I were paddling back when the winds blew 20 knots. Three of us were paddling and JJQ was in his brand new revo 16. he just easily peddled home while the rest of us were paddling so hard that if we stopped for 5 seconds we'd lose all progress over 10 minutes.

Exciting times.....

Complicated question.  If you're not familiar with kayaking in the sea, you want to use different standards than those used by kayakers with some experience, and there are a lot of factors that you need to think about that my be natural to us.

When someone is going along with me for their first trip, I like swells no taller than 1/3 the length of their kayak, with intervals no less than three times that height, and wind less than 10 knots.  For a 12 foot kayak, that's a swell of 4 feet at 12 second intervals.

Wind direction is important to wave shape, so watch for that.

Direction of the primary-, secondary-, and wind-swells can be a factor, too.  When they are coming from opposing directions, that can make the sea feel mighty choppy.  And when they're all coming from the same direction, they're occasionally going to join and form large swells.

It gets easy after a while, but for newcomers?  I believe that being conservative helps.