A high-surf warning will be in effect from 9 a.m. Sunday until 9 p.m. Monday, during which time people are being told to stay off beaches, coastal rocks and away from ocean marinas and breakwaters, according to the National Weather Service.
What the weather service describes as "energetic" waves will build through the day Sunday, peaking Sunday night into Monday morning. Waves will begin to gradually subside late Monday night into Tuesday, the weather service said in a statement Saturday night. These waves are expected to create breakers often reaching between 25 and 40 feet, with occasional swells resulting in 50-foot-high breakers.
The larger the waves, the farther inland they will go, making what are normally safe beaches potentially dangerous into Monday. Not only will the forceful waves come farther onto land — and potentially pull people back into the ocean — but big waves can also toss logs and other debris onto the beaches, the weather service says.
The world-class Mavericks Challenge surfing competition will not happen this week, with excessively large waves early in the week and inconsistent surf expected later in the week.
The Mavericks is operated by the World Surf League, whose Mike Parsons, the league's Big Wave Tour Commissioner, released a statement Sunday.
"We will not be running the Mavericks Challenge this week and will wait for more optimum conditions. The wind is good and conditions will be clean, but the swell will be dropping through the day on Thursday and we won't have the consistency we need to run an excellent event," Parsons said. "With three months left in the waiting period, we are confident that we'll have better opportunities to run this event this season. January is typically the best month for Mavericks so we'll be watching things closely and hoping for a great finish to the season."
CORRECTION (Dec. 17, 2018, 5:42 a.m. PT): An earlier version of this article misstated when the high surf warning was scheduled to expire.
