Californias Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, let’s get into it.

First up, the short version: the next couple of weeks are looking pretty grim for any proper surf. We’ve got a real flat spell on the cards after a brief pulse of junky windswell. You’ll want to keep your expectations low, but there might be a couple of sneaky windows if you’re desperate for a paddle.

We start this Saturday morning the 5th with some stormy conditions and a mix of swell, but it’s messy with a strong SW wind. That’s an instant write-off. The afternoon cleans up a bit wind-wise, but that swell is short-period and chopped up. Not worth your time.

Sunday the 6th sees the swell drop right out, down to a tiny 1ft in the morning. There’s a clean offshore wind, which is nice, but there’s simply no energy in the water. The afternoon bumps up a little with a cross-offshore wind, but it’s still poor.

Monday the 7th stays small and junky. The wind is cross-offshore, so it’ll be clean, but it’s weak and short-period. This is a “watch the horizon and stay on the beach” kind of day. Through Tuesday the 8th, we get a slight bump in size to around 6ft, but the period is still short and the conditions are just ordinary. Even with a clean look to it, the combo of a fresh wind and that weak, crumbly swell won’t offer up much. The guidance is pretty blunt about it: the surf quality is poor.

The rest of that week and into the weekend, it’s a slow bleed of energy. Thursday the 10th has some tiny, clean waves, but they’re unremarkable. By the 12th and 13th, we’re down to ankle-biters. The energy reading is genuinely weak, with values like 77 and 56. The water’s still warm, sitting at 83°F with the anomaly basically average for this time of year, so that’s not the issue.

Then, hold on. We get a flicker of life on Monday the 14th. The morning shows a pulse of 4ft with an easterly direction and a 9-second period. The wind is a moderate offshore. This might be the most interesting surf of the entire run. It’s clean and has a bit of push. It’s not a monster, but it’s something. The break is Californias, a reef setup that’s fairly consistent, though it can be a bit inconsistent at times. It’s an advanced spot, so it’s not for the faint of heart. This is the standout, but let’s be real, it’s a small window on a big, flat calendar.

After that, it’s back to the doldrums. The rest of the second week is a write-off. Tiny, weak swells from the east with no power. The energy readings drop into the single digits and low double digits. It’s flat, plain and simple. The period gets long, in the 12-second range, but with that tiny size, it’s just not going to break with any sort of form on this reef.

So, that’s the story. One brief, clean, small window on the 14th, surrounded by a whole lot of nothing. Keep the board in the car, but don’t get your hopes up.

Rusty

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