Chicahauk Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright folks, Rusty here. Let’s have a look at what’s cooking for Chicahauk.

To be straight with you, the next week and a half is looking pretty flat and grim. We’ve got a long stretch of weak, short-period windswell and mostly poor conditions. The first real glimmer of anything worth paddling out for doesn’t show up until the morning of Monday the 18th of August, and even then it’s only just surfable. The wait is a long one – nearly a full week of nothing but ankle-slop.

For the first several days, from the 10th through to the 16th, the swell is tiny, mostly around 0.7ft to 2ft, with periods barely scraping 7 or 8 seconds. The combined wave energy is weak, sitting in the low double digits (9 to 35). Winds are a mixed bag, but the swell just isn’t there to do anything with it. It’s a real bummer.

Now, Monday the 18th of August is where things get a little interesting. The morning shows a pulse of longer-period groundswell – 2ft at 15 seconds from the E, with the combined energy jumping to 159 (moderate). The wind goes glassy, dead calm, which is a huge positive. That’s a clean, glassy morning, but the size is still tiny. It’s a surfable wave, but very ordinary.

The stand-out moment, and the only real highlight in this whole outlook, rolls in on the morning of Wednesday the 20th of August. We see a bump in swell to 3ft from the ESE, with a period of 12 seconds, and combined energy hitting 243 (moderate). The wind is a gentle cross-shore from the SE, keeping things reasonably clean. This is the best we’ve got on offer. It’s not a monster, but the longer period will give it a bit more shape and push than the dribble we’ve been staring at. The swell direction from the ESE is a solid match for Chicahauk’s optimum E direction. Just keep in mind, this is a sandbar, and it’s fairly consistent but can get crowded sometimes.

After that, it tails off again into the 21st and 22nd with smaller, weaker swell and onshore winds. The morning of the 21st of August has a 2ft ESE swell with a clean offshore wind from the SW, but the energy is back down to 49 (weak). The 25th of August sees a bigger, messier 4ft to 5ft NE swell, but with a terrible period of 5-6 seconds and strong cross-onshore winds. That’s a choppy, lumpy mess, more suited to kites than paddling.

So, to sum it up: We’ve got a long flat spell, a brief glassy moment on the 18th, and one genuinely decent, clean morning on the 20th of August. That’s your window. The water temp is a touch warmer than normal for this time of year, sitting around 82°F.

Rusty, signing off.

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