It might seem early, but I’m going to call it now: it’s going to be a good season. My guess is that we will see Glenwood Springs over 20,000 CFS and Big Sur will be surfable for a week, maybe more.

Looking at the current snowpack, we are in good shape.

Source: USDA / NRCS via OpenSnow

The dark, thick, blue line is the current year. You can see we are well ahead of the game compared to last year (thin, blue line) and in similar shape to 2014 (thin, yellow line), both of these years have been good for Glenwood and Big Sur.

What does this mean for river surfing? Get surfing early. Break out your SUPs and start getting in shape and practicing before the main runoff hits. If you’re planning on surfing Glenwood for the first time this season, make sure you make an early trip there to learn it. Here’s a video of Glenwood at 7,400 CFS, a great level for first timers.

Three weeks after this video was shot, Glenwood was over 19,000 CFS. If you wait until then, you’ll be fighting with the current, crowds, and long swims.

In any case, plan on a great Colorado river surfing season. Hope to see you out there!

Written by | Benjamin

Benjamin Smith is a land locked surfer living in Colorado. He gets his surfing fix on the local rivers, where he SUP surfs standing waves.