Conditions are genuinely the best dawn window of the week: dead calm 2am–7am, clean 14s SSW at 203–204° squarely in the reef's sweet spot. Only the tide (low and still outgoing at first light) keeps it off a clean sweep. Chris works 0600 tomorrow so it's out of reach — an evening session after the shift is marginal (10mph W onshore until ~7pm, light running out by 8pm). Real target: Thursday July 9, his next day off, when both LOTUS and Wavecast peg the swell peaking.
Data from evening pull Sat Jul 4, 9:05pm PDT · buoys + NOAA + NWS + Open-Meteo + Surfline Premium (Chrome session)
Condition Gauges — Sunday dawn
Tide — Sunday July 5 (La Jolla / San Clemente ref)
Blacks: swell direction is ambiguous tonight (buoy sentinel reads S 198°, Surfline's individual-swell breakdown reads SW 222° — between Blacks' two windows) and face is a touch under the 4ft inclusion cutoff. Left off the pick.
Days to Watch
Thu Jul 9 — Chris's next full day off. Surfline LOTUS has Ponto/Cardiff/Blacks all stepping up to 4–5ft, and Wavecast SoCal independently calls "chest to head-high potential, peak Thursday." Worth holding off for rather than forcing tomorrow evening's marginal window.