Cherry Hill Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright folks, Rusty here. Let's talk about what's on offer at Cherry Hill.

The next 16 days are a bit of a mixed bag. The swell energy is there – we're seeing moderate to strong combined energy readings, with values like 260 and climbing over 600 by the end of the first week. But the problem is the wind. For the most part, we’ve got a persistent cross-onshore flow that’s keeping things choppy and messy. The waves themselves are small, mostly in the 1 ft to 4 ft range, and the period is all over the place, from a very long 19 seconds down to a short 8 seconds. That long-period stuff, when it does show up, might not break all that well at a beach setup like this.

Right now, and through most of the next week, conditions are honestly pretty poor. The water is running at 74°F which is about 5°F warmer than normal for this time of year – that's very unusual, a real tropical feel. But with the wind, it's not doing us many favours. Most of the mornings and afternoons are carrying that cross-onshore breeze, keeping the surface messy. The swell direction is consistently from the SW, and the optimum swell direction here is W, so we're not even getting the best angle.

If there's any bright spot, it’s on Saturday the 19th of September. The morning looks like a small window of opportunity with light offshore wind from the W, combined energy hitting 570 (moderate-strong), and a 3 ft SW swell with a long 18-second period. The wind will be clean, so if you can get out there early, it could be the best session of the period. That said, it’s a long-period swell at a beach break, so expect those sets to be a bit straight and maybe tricky. And with crowds marked as “sometimes”, you might have some company.

Later in the week, starting Monday the 21st, the energy picks up further (combined energy over 650), but the wind switches back to cross-onshore, so it’s back to marginal conditions at best. The second week is pretty much more of the same: small, cross-onshore, poor to marginal. There’s nothing that jumps out as a must-surf day after that first window.

So, the call is: Saturday the 19th morning is your best bet. Otherwise, it's a long stretch of average to poor conditions, and you might be better off waiting for the next forecast update.

Rusty.

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