Historic swell approaches Europe

Going on two months of above par swell activity in the North Atlantic, Europe and North Africa brace themselves for what the Weather Channel has dubbed the “Hercules” of storms. “Hercules” is intensely spinning off the United States east coast with 60-foot plus seas aimed at Europe. The peak of the swell arrives Monday, January 6, with forecast swell models showing up to 33-feet at 22 seconds (mostly with unfavorable winds). Tuesday predicts the swell easing off yet still very large 30 to 50-foot surf.

European big-wave charger Andrew Cotton(@andrew_cotton) is gearing up and following the conditions closely before heading out. “With the ‘biggest swell ever’ on the charts for Europe on Monday, I’m packing all my equipment and hitting the road,” said Cotton. “The strange thing is I haven’t actually got a solid plan on where I’m going.”

2008 Mavericks Invitational champion and calculated big-wave rider, Greg Long is making the trek to follow the swell stating, “At times like these, I sometimes wish I had chosen golf instead.”

Waves off Nazare, Portugal will have sets in the 80-foot plus range, mostly bad winds until the last daylight hours of Monday. Stay tuned on the www.surfline.com live cam here Monday afternoon, local time: http://www.surfline.com/surf-report/praia-da-nazare-portugal_44501/

Watch the Atlantic swell model here: http://www.stormsurfing.com/cgi/display.cgi?a=natla_height

With no large swells over 18-feet so far this winter for the Pacific, Mavericks Invitational surf forecaster, Mark Sponsler of www.stormsurf.com explains the shift in atmospheric terms, “I’ll attribute most of it to the jetstream. Its been pushing flat off Japan then splitting on the dateline and directing all storm energy either to Hawaii or up into Alaska. The split flow then regroups over the interior US and starts raging while pushing towards Europe. This pattern is well dug in and until something strong develops to dislodge it (like a good Active Phase of the MJO) expect more of the same.”

Benefitting from the lack of extra large surf, Hawaii and California has had beautiful conditions in the 8 to 12-foot range.

Click here for a few video clips of some recent surf in California: https://vimeo.com/83332142
And, of recent Pipeline: https://vimeo.com/83187924
Image courtesy of www.stormsurf.com