La BOMBA!
The world’s largest surf forecasting website Surfline spent much of last week hyping, re-hyping, a south swell due to hit California that was going to be so wild, so wooly, that only one name would do.
LA BOMBA.
The bomb.
La Bomba would travel north from Chile to mainland Mexico, where it had properly lit Puerto Enscondido’s famed Mariachi Pipeline, and lay waste to every south facing beach from San Diego all the way to Crescent City.
La Bomba would be great, it would be grand, it would be unlike anything else ever, a full hand jam off the top etc.
I was excited to surf La Bomba and to see others surf La Bomba too but then a fine sailing wind reared its head and seeing as yo no soy capitán but certainly soy marinero, set out to sea with my very best friends leaving cell phone service behind.
We gusted back into range early last evening, colorful spinnaker fluttering, and the first thing I did was to check with other friends, to see if they were still alive after experiencing La Bomba or if they had been exploded.
“It was ok…” was the universal reply.
Was La Bomba a dud in California?
Had those other friends been surfing the wrong spots at the wrong times?
Or, has Surfline become unwittingly trapped behind the World Surf League’s patented Wall of Positive Noise™, stuck issuing Newcastle-esque projections to non-professional surfers too? The Huntington Beach-based company has, for the past few years, been the World Surf Line’s exclusive forecasting partner and the event forecasts have become increasingly surreal. I can’t imagine that sort of “cup-not-only-half-full-but-overflowing” attitude couldn’t help but infect day to day operations.
Mightn’t one of the programers, someone who escapes the daily Joe Turpel morning affirmation readings and ELo smile exercises, have slipped an SOS to the surf world in the form of La Bomba?
Para bailar la bomba, para bailar la bomba se necesita una poca de gracia. Una poca de gracia pa’ mi pa’ ti y arriba y arriba. Ah y arriba y arriba por ti seré, por ti seré, por ti seré?
Or maybe those other friends were surfing the wrong spots and the wrong times.
What was your experience with La Bomba?
Has it not really hit yet?
Sailing, man.
Totally overhyped, but not a dud. Plenty snuck in North of Point Arguello to rouse my favorite south loving reef spasmodically to life. Got a bakers dozen of good waves, including one smoker that will keep me triangulating buoy info until next time. It was really, really cold- spring upwelling is not for the faint-hearted (ie VALs).
The hype sounds almost as bad as Washington state vals on a NW swell.
I’ve written more than a few snarky emails to the forecasters. They always try to justify the mistakes instead of just owning them. Just say “it didn’t form like we thought it would” or something like that. Instead they double down and continue to lie about the size and quality of the conditions. I only subscribe to use the cams to see the wind conditions.
Surfline cares more about clicks and bottom lines than accurate forecasting. I’ve surfed way better snd bigger. No way near top 5 swells of this century, like they were claiming.. just an average inconsistent south swell… It’s not like they got it wrong by mistake they knew exactly what they were doing overhyping another swell…
In the article I read on Surfline this morning, it looks like they kind of admit that they overhyped the swell – never seen that before
La la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la Bomba, (dooty-doo!)
Surfline is a corporate piece of sh!t that would rather have your local be infested with ants than actually giving you an accurate report. I would rather have Surfline without the lies aka @noliesreport https://www.instagram.com/n…
Horrified, wait no mortified that Chas does not know the difference between “La Bamba” AKA Richie Valens and “La Bomba” the far superior Ricky Martin Latin-pop hit. What kind of un-woke, culturally confused, Spanglish appropriating gringo are you?
Wait until you get the biannual 50 year storm.
I’ve never understood the Southern California obsession/love of south swells here. Inconsistent, closed out, no parking, overhyped, and crowded. Not to mention juvenile Great Whites and tons of sting rays. Summer sucks!
Could we get that in bananas please?
I thought the surfline forecast called it at least a cup and a half – to – two cups out of the south?
It’s why the broadcast commentary game has lifted to new levels of insight and expertise.
Nick Carroll, Surfline.
ugh. he’s the worst. the goering of surfing
Actually, Ashole Gargleballs is the worst of the worst!!
nah. nick is scum. ashton is just retarded.
He’s all in.
If I was the Goering of surfing, you’d be fucken dead.
goering was a lazy fuck dining out on slender past achievements ….the shoe fits.
baubles! all the baubles!
Wasn’t the fact that the swell direction coming from 170-180 degrees enough to let you know that it would likely not, be La Bombing in most parts of SD?
Why even talk about facts? Kooks just want to know what color the forecast shows….
Are you being racist?
I’ll have to call lebron, and ask him….
Selling swells sells surf stuff and sells out the rest of us. Every decent swell will now be named and overhyped to the hilt.
I surfed my local reefie in South OC yesterday. It was well overhead on the sets. One really big set came in around 9am. Thankfully, many OC surfers are fair-weather wimps, so the chilly overcast kept the crowd light.
Overall, though, this was another WAY overhyped SurfLie fiasco.
Chas, even with Surflie’s record of swell hyping, you miss “La Bomba” to go… sailing? What gives? Were you on a make-up cruise with the missus, the Gogganses, and L’il Haberdasher?
Chas, the way I see it you have several ways to interpret the feedback from a swell event of high magnitude.
if the waves had been average or even slightly above average, your friends are obligated (with knowledge that you were absent) to describe the event as “epic”, “all time”, “where fuck were you? you really missed out” “my arms will be wrecked for weeks” etc, etc. Take this kind of feedback as comfort that you didn’t really miss anything special.
if the same usually chirpy cunts say things like (usually with a degree less chirp) “it didn’t really line up” “swell was too south” “there was a few good ones but really inconsistent” “my knee is playing up so couldn’t surf”, this is a sure sign that the swell was well out of their comfort zone and they most likely didn’t make it out past the shore break. depending on your level of interest in testing your mid length duck diving capabilities this may also mean you didn’t miss out on much.
so if you had a few days with no cellphone coverage, swilled vodka and played pirate I would suggest you didn’t miss out on much.
and by the way, where fuck have you been, its been pumping.
and you could probably check that Instagram place if really need to know
Lo Siento Chas, but the song is “La Bamba” not “La Bomba”. Good prose though.
Is this another example of “South of the border is all the same”?
I know… and furthermore, there is a Justin Bieber song actually called La Bomba which probably had more appropriate-for-the-story lyrics. Swinging, missing.
I figured there must be a Latino/ reggaton/pop song out there named“la bomba”.Just not in my play list. Nor is Justin Bieber.
Chas, is it really news that Hypeline overhyped its 10,000th?, 100,000th?, millionth? swell?
I guess not. Sorry.
is that a millionth Hawaiian?
Pretty sure south beach and hubbards get waves today.
They have to name all swells now so the VAL can hashtag they’re pathetic Instagram posts.
They have to be labeled in alphabetic order to keep track of them.