Bicentenial Park Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright folks, it’s Rusty here. Let’s be straight with you. Looking at the charts for our stretch of coast, this is not a week for epic tales. We’ve got a long stretch of small, weak surf ahead, and it’s going to take some patience.

The one spot we’ve got our eyes on is Bicentennial Park. It’s the only game in town, so to speak. It’s a reef setup, and it’s inconsistent, so you really have to pick your moments. First up, the water temp is sitting at 85°, which is pretty much spot-on for this time of year, no nasty surprises there.

The whole period is plagued by tiny, weak swells. For the first week and a half, we're looking at waves mostly under 2ft, with the swell energy being weak to moderate at best. The combined energy is often down in the low teens and twenties, sometimes nudging into the 30s and 60s, but that’s still weak. There’s a lot of small, short-period windswell mixed in, and a lot of it is coming from the ESE, which is okay, but the size just isn't there.

The best of the mornings will be when the wind goes light or offshore, especially the WSW and SW breezes, which will leave the surface glassy and clean. Thursday the 20th and Tuesday the 25th both have those great, glassy mornings, but we're talking about 1ft to 1ft of swell. It's groveler territory for sure.

There’s a slight bump in the energy late in the period. From the 26th through the 28th, the swell direction shifts more to the E and the period stretches out. On the 26th, we see energy jump to 145 in the afternoon, but the wind turns cross-onshore and chops it up. The 27th looks interesting with a bigger pulse of energy (180 in the morning), and a clean, cross-offshore WNW breeze, but the swell is still only 3ft. It’s a small, long-period E swell, which might wrap in a little better, but it’s still not going to blow anyone away.

The real standout, if you can call it that, looks like the morning of Thursday, August 27th. You have the most swell energy of the period (180), an E swell at 3ft, combined with a light offshore breeze. It’s the most potential we see, but again, this is a week and a half out, so treat it as promising, not certain. The surf will be small and clean, with better shape than the junky windswell we're seeing early on. After that, it fades back down into the weak 1ft to 2ft range for the end of August and into September.

Honestly, with this much small, weak surf and a beach-reef setup, if the wind is howling, it might be more interesting for the kite crew than for us paddle surfers. But if you’re desperate, the early mornings with a glassy surface are your best bet for a few dribbly ones.

Rusty.

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