Daytona Beach Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, folks. Rusty here. Let’s have a look at what’s cookin’ for the next couple of weeks.

To be honest, this is a pretty bleak stretch of days for anyone looking to get a proper wave. Daytona Beach is the only spot on the table, and it’s a sandbar setup that’s exposed to the east. The water temp is sitting at 83°, which is pretty much bang on average for this time of year, so no surprises there.

The real problem is that we’ve got a whole lot of nothing in the way of quality surf. The first real sniff of anything that’s even surfable doesn’t arrive until the morning of Friday, the 28th of August. You’ll see a tiny bit of swell pushing in at 1ft from the east, with a period of 9 seconds, and the combined energy is a weak 43. The morning has a bit of clean glass with a light cross-off breeze, so you could probably get a few knee-high dribblers. But by the afternoon, the wind swings onshore and chops it up into a mess.

After that, it’s a long, grim stretch. From Saturday, the 29th of August, all the way through to the 6th of September, the surf is basically unsurfable. The swell stays tiny, under 2ft, and the wind is almost always cross-onshore, creating a bumpy, choppy surface. The period is mostly short, around 8 seconds, so it’s just wind slop with no real push. The combined energy barely cracks 50, so it’s weak and disorganised. You’re better off staying home.

There is a slight glimmer on the morning of Monday, the 7th of September. We get a 2ft swell from the northeast with a 10-second period, giving it a bit more shape. The combined energy is 63, still weak, but the wind is a light cross-off, so it’ll be clean. You can get some little waist-high waves if you’re patient. The same goes for the morning of Tuesday, the 8th of September (2ft, ENE, 9 seconds, glassy wind, 77 energy) and the morning of Wednesday, the 9th (2ft, ENE, 11 seconds, clean offshore wind, energy at 100). These are the best of a bad bunch, but they’re still pretty ordinary. The period on the 9th is a decent 11 seconds, so it’ll have a bit of groundswell push, but it’s a sandbar break, so it might be a bit wonky.

The real standout, if you can call it that, is the morning of Thursday, the 10th of September. Clean offshore light breeze from the southwest, with a 1ft swell from the northeast at 10 seconds. It’s tiny, but it’ll be the cleanest wave of the whole period. Combined energy is only 40, so it’s weak, but if you’ve got a longboard and a lot of patience, you might snag a few fun ones.

Bottom line: this is a tough stretch. The surf is weak, tiny, and mostly blown out. There’s no big swell on the horizon. For a beginner, the consistent small waves and clean morning windows on the 28th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th of September might be okay for a paddle, but for anyone else, it’s a total write-off. It’s a long blank run, and that’s pretty normal for this area when the wind and swell don’t line up.

Rusty.

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