As for us in SC, there is certainly swell out there, and rain. It looks like we have a lull in the rain partially tomorrow, then it's back to rain off and on all day through the weekend.

I have been tracking this stuff pretty closely since we have been skunked so far. As of last night, winds are looking onshore throughout this entire event. But this morning when I looked, one of my sources was calling for offshore winds Sunday morning here. For about half of the day.... But my core data points are still showing onshore.... Which is strange. Usually, my main data sources are the more reliable ones. So, I checked with good ol' surfline as the third party verification process. While surfine has fucked up my local forecast for months, almost like the data is missing, surfline DOES have the wind switch offshore from the WSW in the AM.... So, 3 out of my 4 sources are showing offshore Sunday. Hopefully, all the data catches up with itself today and we can get some more accurate predictions. But at this point, it's looking like I might be camping out Sunday morning for the entire morning and try and milk this shit, since this may be all we have on the horizon. Yikes.... 

Action in the Pacific right now: Sad Face Emoji

My sister that lives in Panama City Beach is gettin here today.  Her BF needs a surgery and it's gonna be here.  Unplanned deal that ends up happened at a unique time.  A few days ago when they found out, no storm.  So, she kinda evacuated without knowin til afterwards.  

I don't really know WHAT is gonna happen, but it's fun hearin 8ft@11sec,  0-20mi out, with offshore (N) winds, for Saturday.  😁

https://youtube.com/shorts/1VFmkHB3Llo?is=uXERcYFLB1Fr4k8o

Forecast just updated.  I think my neighbors would be pretty ok with waist high 10sec for TGIF.  🙏😏

It's wakin up here in Galveston.  Bouy is up to 5ft @ 8sec.  Waitin on the mornin forecast update.  Everything so far says we get some waist high 10, 11sec around Happy TGIF Hour today.  

Hope everyone in the Panhandle stays safe.  It's nuts how my sister from Panama City Beach ended up evacuated here by accident.  

Morning IBC. Winds straight outta the north right now at 8am, your time.... Looks like the next 5-6 hours are your window buddy! 4-5ft @ 10 seconds today around lunch... get some bro! 

Now:

Based on the cam footage, it looks like the wind is holding up the left handers quite a bit. The first handful of sets I watched were offshore and the left hand faces were held up down a pretty long line. North side of the pier, towards the pier riding west. 

Wind: 

On a normal day, probably everybody in Galveston would be out surfin now.  It's better than anything I've seen in at least a month. Chest high sets at the Pier.  Definitely rippable, but still rough lookin.  

Yes, it's messy, but when it's not a still shot and you watch the live video, you can see the offshore flow holding things together. So, it's actually pretty organized once it's close enough to start breaking! Get it bro. Today is the day. Leftovers coming, sure. But these are rippable conditions on every wave riding device, including the human body!

I've gone out too early before.  It keeps gettin better, and better... you get tired-er, and tired-er... it never stops gettin better... you completely run outa gas... still gettin better...  miss the best part of all... 🤣

Yeah, I know your coast can be even more fickle that mine. Not last year, but the year before, I based quite a few hurricane sessions for "after work", where the tides lined up properly, the swell was there and what not, and the wind was "supposed to do this or that" and that season, I got straight up skunked on like 5 different days because I watched cams all afternoon, everything was great, and within 30 minutes of me looking at a cam and getting to the beach, it had turned to completely slop/shit..... So last year, I made a point to take PTO and do whatever I had to do. If I saw it good, I just went. Because on the SC coast, and the gulf coast, things change in an instant, and it can be gone... Poof....

Just one angry, surf hungry guy's advice at this point.... It is looks decent, I am gonna go... Ya just never know. 

Appears that this thing is leaning slightly east on it's approach. At this particular moment, the storm is moving over the final continental shelf, and into more shallow, slightly warmer water. One last energy boost before it starts to run out of water and hit the coast. Estimated sustained winds at 115 on landfall, with gusts to 150. So at this point, every bit of a Cat3 is gonna hit.

Pensacola looking like it's gonna get hammered. Not sure so much about the infrastructure. It's no cat5 Katrina, but it seems as though those coastal panhandle towns are all lowlying with some pretty severe flooding issues. 

Hoping they all bode well and hopefully people that can leave, left. 

I will never forget Katrina. I was on the west coast. And it's like 3-4 days out, and every surfer I knew on the west coast were all saying "Better get the fuck outta New Orleans NOW".... Forecast never changed. 2 days out. GET OUT! NOW!... 24 hours out... LEAVE. WHAT ARE THESE PEOPLE DOING? They have been talking about the levies for a week and laying out what is going to happen. There are busses. People aren't leaving...

I mean, I get the old lady that wants to hunker down in her generational home and all that, but generally speaking, get the fuck outta dodge. You never know. 

Now

Think of it this way: Hurricane Helene hit a similar track a couple years back and took out half of the state of Georgia, leaving a wasteland east of Atlanta. It decimated all of Asheville. It closed the mountain pass into Tennessee for over 2 years. That storm fucked up the entire inland SE area. Like, bad. I drove all the way from Hilton Head to Atlanta like 8 months later. Took backroads, dead east past Augusta.... The entire state of Georgia was fucked still. I had never seen anything like it. That winter we went up to the NC mountains and 70% of the town was still fucked...

That was a similar storm, with only 12 mph more sustained wind upon landfall... Just sayin' 

Buoy made it to 12sec.  The best part of this one is gonna be overnight.  I ain't complainin.  Just a report. 

Better pic.  Better conditions now.  Buoy hit 13sec.  😎🤙

One more...

Here y'all go.  😎🤙