A small disturbance is about to reach the Tahoe Basin. No snow has fallen yet, but intense winds ahead of the storm system have been hammering the shores of Lake Tahoe all morning and afternoon. With a forecast calling for sustained south-southwest (SSW) winds in the 25-35 mph range, with gusts to 55, it wasn’t really a matter of if there’d be surf today, just where it’d be most ideal.
When a SSW wind forecast reaches the “surfable” range for our area the normal spot check runs from Tahoe Vista in the west, to Sand Harbor in the east. Both of these places pick up more of a direct SW wind while the added twist of a SSW event usually makes spots along the Incline Village area work best.
Along my surf check this morning I was happy to run into two friends I met during the last time I was down in Santa Cruz reaping the benefits of a beautiful south swell. Pete and Ita were fired up for the forecast and even more fired up to score their first waves on Lake Tahoe today! They both killed it! Here’s a nice sequence of Pete:
The three of us had a super fun session catching multiple rides before the wind and turbidity of the bathtub like conditions had its way. Even the kite-boarders who had been sending it when we showed up got tossed around a bit by the time we were finishing up. One of them actually broke their harness in the midst of all the action.
It doesn’t happen all that often-surfable waves on Lake Tahoe, but with all these shark stories in the news lately, accentuated by the fact that it’s breeding season in the Farallon Islands, maybe waiting for Lake Tahoe to break is a viable answer. It’s a pretty laughable answer, and always will be, but I’ll tell you what, when it does happen, you’ll never be able to discount how fun it is to catch a legit wave on Lake Tahoe!
