Good build up today as the wind shifted from south to NW. Big, black clouds came in from the north with a fearsome blizzard. Temp dropped 20 degrees. Really good rights. Wind is now howling from NW. Only a few ice cubes here & there today.
Local forecast for am is NW 10-20 with temp 22 degrees. I'll be heading out in am, hoping for an increase in wind speed.
Froze my butt off at a funeral today for a giant and titan of the Buffalo Fire Department. A bunch of firefighters from Rochester and Toronto were standing next to me. I wish I had worn a wetsuit under my uniform. The SW wind was whipping off the Lake Erie ice and funneling into Lackawanna where we stood. Then when we came outside the temperature plummeted and the wind was colder from the NW. The flags crossing the Peace Bridge tonight were from hard from the NW.
Lake Erie in Hamburg has a some opening for surfing at Hamburg Town Park this afternoon but I couldn't ride it. You can see massive amounts of ice on the Canadian shore line. The ice there is like a major heart blockage. If Lake Erie surf was compared to the heart it would be in cardiac arrest right now. Yes we have a surf emergency.
I-90 to 490 West (exit 45) to 590 North to Seabreeze (end of 590 North). At end of 590 turn right and then into parking lot on left before the Irondequoit Outlet bridge. Walk across bridge to east jetty. There is a bench on right that marks access path to beach. Latest forecast is 15-25 mph NNW wind. Will be there by 10:00.
Safe travelling.
Bernard thanks for the directions. I'm staying here because the current NOAA wavecast has dropped appreciable. It looks very small now in Rochester. The price of gas a week out from pay day is another deciding factor.
Whole coastline iced in, except for rideable waves forming in Sodus Bay as the waves pounded through the Sodus Bay outlet. Lots of ice paddies, though. No riding in Rochester today.
The ice was terrible in Rochester, hence the trek east on Lake Road all the way to Sodus Point searching for an opening. Huge thrown up masses of ice were at Sodus Point with the wind whipping into the 40s with a parking lot sandstorm. Sodus Bay outlet is a LONG outlet and the NW winds were causing the waves to reflect, refract, summate and funnelate into consistent 3 ft. rideable waves that wrapped around the Coast Guard station. This is where the boat launch ramp is in the summer time. The lake was driving down the hundred yard channel that is the Sodus Bay, NY outlet (40 miles west of Rochester) and creating rideable waves on a pond (inner harbor)!
Next time there is a NW gale and ice forming, this is a twisted place to catch waves.
Fairhaven, NY further up the coast also works great on strong NWesterlies (when there is no ice).
Ryan White (Login RyanCNJ) ESA Member 68.162.42.125
Sodus Point
March 1 2006, 6:47 AM
That's insane that swell gets funneled into there and you can actually ride it. This was one of the shots I grabbed when I was up there 3 weeks ago looking into Sodus Harbor. Were the waves wrapping in and around towards the right there? I remember some open water in there, but there was ice too all in the Harbor. Hopefully the next big W-NW gale follows a warming period to melt some of the ice, because Sodus (from the setup I saw) and spots east of there look promising
The waves were wrapping right around the Coast Guard station.
Fairhaven, NY State Park has a great sandy beach.
The entire coastline north and south of Southwick State Park on the Lake Ontario East coast (along Rte. 3), called The Golden Crescent,
has outstanding waves on W & SW. There are 17 miles of sand dunes from Southwick Beach environs south to the Salmon River in Pulaski, NY.
One of the best point breaks around looks to be between Southwick and Stony Point Lighthouse. The day after a strong W/SW, the waves come in like ocean swell and rise up a hundred yards out from the limestone point is lines of beautiful curling sets. It is only accessible by boat as there are private cottages on shore.
I checked it out by boat last summer and the water looked quite deep (over head). Would have to get a kayak and paddle out to the location.
Looking forward to checking it out this summer.
Would be cool to catch a session with you up there sometime this Spring or Summer. The whole Mexico Bay area there on the southeast shore of Lake Ontario is the closest to me, right near I-81. Could be up there in about 6 hours from where I am. Far, Yes, but you guys know about driving distances to score a good session. Ocean or Lake, don't matter.
It's been nearly flat here for a couple of weeks now. Possible coastal low early next week looks to be our next significant swell maker. Gotta get that mild weather pattern back to cause some atmospheric turbulence to kick up the surf.
