Epic Swells Like 1969

Weekend Wonders
I'm giving Grooming 101 a rest for the weekend...besides weekends are for play! I'm playing with the new iPod, setting up accounts, importing contacts and bookmarks, and generally enjoying a GeeWhiz experience. As Captain Jack Aubrey quipped in Patrick O'Brian's "Master and Commander": "What a fascinating, Modern World we live in"

While fiddling with my Tweetdeck application, I received a Retweet from @Mavericks_Surf touting "Epic Surf Expected like 1969"

My mind raced immediately into WayBack Mode...1969 was an Epic Winter in the High Sierra. One of the largest snowfall winters on record, 1969 is indelibly etched in my memory because the huge front window-wall of the then new Gold Coast Lodge at Squaw Valley USA, caved in under the deep drifts of a huge storm period. I remember it vividly because the event happened just a few weeks after I made my first unchaperoned overnight ski trip with my older cousin Gary in his sweet 1955 Chevy Nomad Station Wagon!

It was a memorable trip...my first non-Boy Scout overnight...and we stayed in the 1960 Winter Olympics' Athlete Quarters. Squaw still basked in the glow of The Games in 1969...the buzz of the Winter Games seemed palpable to me, and the skiing was fabulous! I was just seventeen and very impressionable...

Back in the here and now, my mind finished it flights of fancy, and I clicked the link...it lead to a FoxTV station in Honolulu, Hawaii. Dangerous swell is headed for Hawaii and ultimately the California Coast...it's associated storminess will be around almost all week. Darn it, getting back to reality made me take a quick look around the Weathersphere to see if next week might look like 1969.

It's gonna be cold, that's for sure! Reno's AFD from 03:29 Saturday said:
THE ABOVE MENTIONED SYSTEM WILL BE A REINFORCING SHOT OF COLD AIR
THAT WILL HELP TO PLUNGE TEMPERATURES 15-20 DEGREES BELOW NORMAL
MONDAY INTO TUESDAY...POSSIBLE LASTING INTO THE THE LONG TERM
PERIOD.

Looking good Snowmaking-wise, though this weekends frontal push won't bring much snow to the Tahoe Sierra...most of the snow showers are tapped to occur South of Lake Tahoe. This first Cold Front will open the Storm Door, and just like a Real Sierra Winter, another storm will come through every other day all next week! Hurray! I climb back into my BR350 Friday night.

I talked with the Boss for a while Friday afternoon, he told me there was more snowmaking going on than I could see from the Mountain's webcams...they had trouble with Temperature Inversions inhibiting their progress last week, but the approaching front had things mixing up enough to banish the inversions, and allow some bountiful snowmaking shifts. Boo-yah!

Surfing Buoys
Never one to get hung up on reality on a weekend, I toured my Buoy Bookmarks to see if any sign of the approaching "Epic Swells like 1969" were getting noticed by the Buoy Network...Nope, it's still too early. The Maverick Surfer guys are really wound-up, though...they're Twittering up a storm! (Sorry) Lot's of 50FT! Tweets, God bless 'em...

Taking a jaunt outside, the skies here at the Ancestral Digs looked decidedly threatening...heavy weather looking clouds in gray and darker gray greeted me while I fetched the newspaper from the driveway. Now four hours hence, the skies are blue over the Inland Valley, but there's a slight chill in the air.

Errands Completed
I spent the afternoon away from the Weather Frenzy…I can report however, that Holiday Shopping Frenzy is in Full Effect.

Driving out to the Berkeley Flatlands to gather some arts & crafts supplies, I was amazed at just how filthy the air out there was! It must have been wood smoke from Bay Area fireplaces hanging over the Basin…there wasn’t a wisp of breeze anywhere today.

Jacking back into the CyberStream, I see the Mavericks Contest is still on a roiling boil. Those Surfer Dudes aren’t going to sleep tonight! They missed the opportunity for their Contest last season, so they’re Totally Stoked by the Big Swell Forecast…God love ‘em…even if they don’t have a Weather Page on any of the Mavericks Websites.

I’m still trying to track down those Nebulous Surfer Dude Forecasters who said: " weather forecasters are saying there's going to be at least 30 Major Storms come through Northern California's Coast between now and March 31st..."

I’ll admit it, I’ve got the Storm Door Buzz goin’ on, too. Getting back in my tractor again will be like a warm comfortable Homecoming…kinda cozy even. I'm Stoked, too!