Ano Nuevo Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, let’s be straight with you. The first few days of this outlook are pretty grim. We’ve got a lot of wind messing up an already small swell window. The surf is there, but it’s lumpy and cross-chopped, and honestly, nothing is worth getting wet for until the weekend blows over. This is a classic case of waiting it out.

Looking at the whole 16-day run, the models keep throwing a mix of weak SSW pulses at us, but the wind is the real killer. There’s a couple of windows where things might clean up, but they’re short-lived.

For the first stretch, from Thursday the 27th through the weekend, it’s all about onshore and cross-shore breezes. Thursday morning has a tiny 1 ft (0.4m) SSW with an 18-second period, but a 12 mph (20 km/h) cross-shore makes it a mess. The energy is moderate (424), but it’s not surfable. It just gets worse from there. Friday, the wind is lighter in the morning (6 mph / 10 km/h) and the swell is 3 ft (0.8m) with a 17-second period and moderate energy (535), but it’s still crossed-up. Saturday’s a bit bigger, 4 ft (1.2m), but all that energy (1028) is wrecked by a fresh 19 mph (30 km/h) cross-shore. It’s a blown-out, lumpy mess. We are looking at four days of nothing but frustration. The gap between any surfable waves is a solid 4 days.

Then things get a little better. Sunday the 30th through Tuesday the 2nd of September, the swell drops back to that 2 ft to 3 ft (0.7m to 0.9m) range, and the wind is still annoying, but not as strong. The period is dropping too, from 16 seconds down to 12 seconds, which means less push. It’s still poor, and the energy is weak (around 250-500). Not worth the paddle.

Finally, around Wednesday the 4th of September, we get a bit of a pulse. The swell builds to 5 ft (1.6m) on the Friday morning with an 11-second period and moderate energy (1102). The wind is lighter, just a gentle cross-shore, and it might be a bit cleaner. But that’s still a marginal call at best, and only for the advanced crew at Ano Nuevo (Ano-Nuevo). It's a beach and reef set up, inconsistent, and a bit sheltered, so it needs that swell from the SSW. But with 5 ft (1.6m), it's not for beginners. It’s not a standout, just the only real window we have.

After that, it goes back to the same old story. Swell hangs around 3 ft to 4 ft (1.0m to 1.2m) with a lot of cross-shore wind, and the period keeps dropping. By the 8th and 9th of September, we get some glassier mornings with a light onshore, but the swell is back down to 2 ft to 3 ft (0.6m to 0.9m) with a long period (19 seconds), which at this exposed break will be too weak. The long period might just mean longer lulls.

So, in plain terms, this is a poor outlook. There are no true standouts. The best on offer is that Friday morning on the 4th of September, a 5 ft (1.6m) SSW pulse with 11 seconds and only a gentle breeze. But even that is a coin-flip.

If you’re a kite surfer, you might get some fun on those days with 19 mph (30 km/h) cross-shore winds. For paddle surfing, it's going to be a long, flat, and messy wait. Don't get your hopes up. Forecasts can change, but as it sits right now, this is a dead zone.

Rusty.

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