Surfski Knowledge Base

Burrows Bay last Saturday (Feb 1)
Dan Mahar
Feb 4 #25991

Deception pass videos looked amazing from last Saturday. I was in Skyline (Anacortes) at the time, where there were some beautiful smooth swells pumping in from the straits. Skyline is at the north end of Burrows Bay and protected from the westerlies coming off the straits by Allen and Burrows islands. Consequently the swell is cleaner. I documented the story on video ending with a shot of some surfers at the south end Alexander beach. I moved here recently and am looking forward to finding some SUP surf. Love to see more surfskis, OC, and SUPs around here. The paddling in this area is fantastic.

Instragram:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B8HjmTwnkV_/

FB:
https://www.facebook.com/dan.mahar.73/videos/vb.100001261280937/2899671096751571/?type=2&theater

Here's a video on an earlier trip to Alexander beach for find swell and surf.
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B3D8iDZguc6/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Paul Reavley
Feb 4 #25992

Thanks Dan,

Any info you can post on decent launch sites and any heads ups on likely favorable swells will be appreciated. Google maps seems to show some parking at Alexander Beach - is that accurate?

Paul

Dan Mahar
Feb 5 #25993

Paul,

The only public beach access is on the west side of the Skyline marina. Park on road. Looks like they are developing lots there but nothing actually being built. Walk around lots to the beach. There is a road down to Alexander marked De Mar Pvt. I’m not sure if the surfers ask permission but they do park at the beach at the bottom of the road.

I was thinking loops out of Skyline. Hug the lee shore of the islands then jet into the swell at the south end of Allen Island. It’s about a six mile loop

Paul Reavley
Feb 5 #25994

That looks promising. In your first post about Skyline you mentioned a nice swell on Saturday - when my impression was that the wind at Deception was primarily W. Naturally I will be curious about what wind directions will work for a swell to develop like you reported in Burrows Bay. Does a swell built from the west tend to curl around into the bay? Will a good swell tend to develop with any other variations of wind into Burrows - SW, S, SE, etc.? Was the ebb tide that morning also in play in building the swell?

I looked around at all of the webcams I could find and found nothing pointed into Burrows Bay. So I guess we are just going to have to visit the Bay and check it in various conditions. Thanks for the beta.

Dan Mahar
Feb 6 #25997

The swell is generated by a solid westerly with significant fetch in the Straits of Juan de Fuca. Saturday morning the wind switched at 7 am from S to a solid W (think 20+ knots). After 5-6 hours of solid westerlies the swell forms. It’s chaotic at Deception and on Whidbey because the swell is mixed with wind chop. I know because I’ve windsurfered out of Chief Joseph Whidbey park a number of times on big westerlies. When the swell hits Allen island and turns into Burrows bay it cleans up in the lee of Allen and Burrows islands. It cleans up by dissipating the wind chop and forms smooth long linear swells. The kind surfers like.

Not sure tidal flux makes much difference in Burrows bay because there is not much tidal current unless you get into the pinch points between Allen and Burrow or Burrow and Skyline. In these pinch points it can often rip at 4 knots. I’ll give more reports as I dial this place in.