Day off, and a clean but small morning. Karina's leftover S/SSW groundswell (11–13s) is holding waist-to-chest with a little W windswell mixed in. Wind is the draw: light E offshore before dawn, under 5kt SE/S through ~9–10am, then the W sea breeze fills to 10mph by noon. Tide bottoms at a shallow 2.5ft low at 6:24am and climbs slowly — mid and incoming for the dawn window, fat past 4ft after 10am. Ponto's straight bars plus crossed-up S and W energy should throw the odd corner; it's a glide-and-grovel session, not a performance one. Tippers is the backup but needs more period than we've got. If small-and-clean isn't worth the drive, Friday's new south swell is the better call.
Data pulled Wed Sep 2 ~7:05pm PT (evening run, targeting Thu 9/3 dawn) · buoys + NOAA tides + NWS + Open-Meteo + Wavecast (Tue 9/1 post). Surfline not checked (no browser in automated runs).
South Ponto clears all four rubric factors (optimal S angle, 11s inside the 10–14s band, ~3kt wind, incoming mid tide) and scores 100 — but it's held to ON, not FIRING, because the face is only waist-to-chest; the scoring table has no size term, so read the label. Tippers is rideable but 11s is below the reef's ~12s+ threshold to line up long, so it's softer and more shifting than a true south. Blacks gets no canyon focus at this period — just a small, hard-to-reach beach break.
Days to Watch
Fri Sep 4 – Sat Sep 5: new long-period S swell (Open-Meteo 15s @ 208°) building — the quality upgrade. Sun Sep 6 onward: larger S (~4.7ft) and a possible swell from Hurricane Marie — Wavecast (Tue 9/1, Nathan Cool) calls it the standout, with rain likely from Marie. Water a warm 73°F.