Backdoor Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, let's get real about the next couple weeks. We got a window, but it's not going to be a classic. The ocean is going to be doing its own thing for most of the period, so you gotta be picky.

The outlook starts off rough. Tuesday the 18th, there's some swell, around 5ft from the NNW with a short, weak 8-second period. The energy is weak to moderate at 285. But the wind is cross and cross-on, so it’s gonna be a choppy mess. Not worth paddling out. Wednesday is smaller and weaker, still a messy cross-shore. Thursday morning, we finally get a bit of glass. The swell drops to 2ft from the WNW, period 9 seconds, and the energy is down to 73. It’s tiny, but it’s clean. That's your only real chance in this first stretch, even if it’s just a grovel session.

Then the wind turns on from the NNW and it just ruins everything. Friday the 21st through the 24th, we’ve got a solid pulse of swell – building from 6ft to 8ft – and the energy jumps into the strong zone (495, 753, 811, up to 961). But it's all for nothing. The NNW wind is howling at 20-25 mph, creating a lumpy, cross-chop mess. The period is short, around 8 to 10 seconds, so it's not going to be organized anyway. It's just a mess. All that size and nowhere to go.

We then get a bit of a lull, but the wind stays cross-shore, so nothing cleans up for more than a morning. The next week is the same story. A couple of small pulses, but the cross-winds and cross-on winds never let up. There’s a moment on the 29th of August, a Saturday morning, where the wind goes light and onshore, with 5ft of NNW swell, but the comment says it's marginal and the tide might mess it up. It's a gamble, not a recommendation.

Honestly, if you look at the whole 16 days, the only standout is that tiny, clean window on Thursday morning, the 20th of August. 2ft is nothing to write home about, but with the glassy conditions, it will be the only time you get a truly clean wave. After that, it’s a long stretch of poor conditions until the very end of the period. On the 2nd of September, there's a pulse of 5ft from the NW with a 10-second period and moderate energy at 498, but the wind is onshore. It’s just another tease.

So, my call is this: if you can, paddle out Thursday morning for some clean, tiny waves. It will be all about finesse, not power. For the rest, you might as well leave the board in the car. This is a stretch where the ocean just doesn’t have its act together.

Rusty.

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