Bay Street Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, mates, Rusty here. Let’s be straight with you. Looking at the charts for the next couple of weeks, it’s a pretty bleak picture for any proper surf. We’ve got a long stretch of tiny, short-period slop with onshore winds messing up what little there is. It’s not going to be a time for scoring barrels; it's going to be a time for staying patient or finding something else to do.

The only spot on the map is Bay Street. It’s a beginner-friendly, fairly consistent break exposed to the southwest swell. But honestly, for the next week and a half, the swell is barely a pulse. We’re looking at wave heights mostly between 1ft and 2ft. The period is low, mostly in the 13 to 17 second range, but with this little energy behind it, those longer periods don’t mean much. The wind is the real killer. It’s pretty much constantly blowing *on* or *cross-on* from the southwest, which is exactly the wrong direction for this place. It’s going to be lumpy and weak.

The water temp is the one bit of excitement: it’s running 71°, which is a solid 5° warmer than normal for this time of year. That’s a real anomaly, so at least you won’t need a thick suit. The combined energy is mostly weak to moderate, with values in the low hundreds at best, like 226 on Tuesday morning, but that doesn't help when the surf quality is in the gutter.

The 18th and 19th look particularly poor, with nothing but knee-high dribble and messy conditions. The 20th through the 22nd are worse, with the swell dropping further. It looks like we have a solid gap of several days, from the 20th all the way to the 23rd, where there is no real surf on offer, just some cross-on wind and tiny waves.

There’s a slight glimmer around the 23rd and 24th as the swell picks up a little to 1ft, but it’s still onshore and pretty hopeless. The same story continues into the last week of August and the first of September. The swell direction shifts slightly from SSW to SW around the 22nd, but the size stays minimal and the wind remains on it. We see some slightly bigger (still tiny) waves on the 30th and 31st, maybe 2ft, but with a 14-15 second period and that southwest wind, they’ll be soft and unorganized.

Honestly, there is no standout day in this entire 16-day window. Nothing comes close to being a highlight. If you’re a beginner, you might get some white-water practice on the better mornings, but even then it’s a struggle. For anyone else, this is a definite skip. The setup looks more interesting for a kite surfer than a paddle surfer, given the onshore winds and lack of any real push.

Keep the board in the car and the wax in the bag, this one’s a write-off. The long-range stuff is promising but way too far out to get excited about. We’ll have to wait for a change in the weather pattern.

Rusty, out.

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