Block Island Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, let's talk about it in feet and miles per hour.

First up, straight talk: for most of this 16-day window, it's pretty grim. We're looking at a long stretch of tiny, weak surf, with a lot of the reports calling it poor. The only real pulse of energy worth talking about doesn't show up until the 23rd of September, so you've got a solid week-plus of flat-to-small conditions before anything remotely exciting happens.

Let's start with the first notable action. On Saturday the 12th, we’ve got some tiny 1ft swell from the southeast at Block Island. The wind is onshore, it's poor, and there's next to no energy (22). Not worth paddling out for.

The whole stretch from the 13th through the 22nd is a mix of weak swell, mostly under 3ft, with poor to mediocre conditions. You'll see a few moments of clean, glassy conditions—like Wednesday afternoon the 16th and Sunday the 20th—but the swell is so small (1ft to 2ft) and weak (energy values mostly in the 30s and 40s) that it’s really just a flat water paddle. On the 18th you get a bit of a longer period, 12 seconds, but the swell size is only 1ft, so that’s a tease. A couple of days, like the 14th and 15th, have some offshore or cross-off winds, but the swell just isn't there to back it up. There's a solid 10 to 11 day gap here where you won't find any surf worth recommending.

Now, the stand-out. Mark your calendar for Wednesday the 23rd of September. This is the one window that actually gets your heart pumping. The afternoon looks like the real deal. We get a proper pulse of 8ft swell from the southeast, with a period of 7 seconds, and clean, moderate offshore wind out of the NNW. The combined energy jumps to a solid 524, which is strong. That's the kind of juice that makes Block Island's points light up. The forecast even says "expect very good surf conditions." This is the one to chase. Keep in mind, at 8ft, this is expert territory. The swell direction is southeast, and the break here works best with a southeast swell, so the angle is right. The wind is offshore and clean, which is a massive positive. No crowds mentioned often, but on a pulse like that, expect a crew.

The energy drops back off on the 24th, with 5ft swell but onshore wind making it choppy and poor, and then fades out again for the rest of the window. The 25th has some clean wind but no size.

So, the bottom line: don't bother for the next ten days. The only move in this whole forecast is the afternoon of Wednesday, 23rd September at Block Island. That's the one. Everything else is a waiting game.

Rusty.

Read more