Diamond Street Surf Forecast and Surf Report

G’day, Rusty here. Let’s be straight – it’s a quiet stretch ahead on the cards, and a surfer’s patience is going to get tested over the next week and a half. There’s really only one morning that’s worth circling on the calendar, and it’s a solid week and a half away.

The first real hope doesn’t show up until Sunday, the 19th of July. Up until then, it’s a dusty run of mostly poor surf conditions. From Wednesday the 8th all the way through to Saturday the 18th, nothing really stacks up – wind is mostly cross-onshore, the waves hover around 2 ft to 3 ft, and the combined swell energy sits well under 1000 (between 206 and 882), which is moderate on the low side. Most mornings and afternoons are written off with “poor surf conditions” or “marginal surf,” so you’re better off saving your wax for later.

The standout – and I mean the only really good look in the whole 16 days – is Sunday morning, July 19th at Diamond Street. That morning, conditions flip. The wind goes glassy – glassy, mate – with a light breeze from the west at just 3 mph. You’re looking at a 3 ft swell from the southwest with a 17-second period, which is a proper long-period groundswell. Combined swell energy hits 617 (moderate), and it’s forecast for “very good surf conditions.” That’s your window. Clean lines, no wind chop, just smooth southwest groundswell wrapping in. Keep in mind, a longer 17-second period like that tends to break a bit straight on a beach break, so Diamond Street (likely in San Diego County) could handle it okay, but don’t expect peaky barrels – more like clean, rolling walls. The water temp is sitting about average for this time of year, so no wetsuit drama.

The rest of that Sunday afternoon shifts to a cross-onshore WNW breeze at 9 mph and the quality drops off. The following Monday and Tuesday (20th and 21st July) are back to poor conditions with cross-onshore winds and energy dribbling down to 375 to 565. By Wednesday the 22nd, it’s barely worth a look, and the last day we’ve got on Thursday the 23rd shows a 16 mph southerly cross-onshore wind smashing a 2 ft swell – all bad.

To sum it up: don’t bother paddling out before the 19th. There’s a solid 11-day gap of nothing surfable. The only real chance is that glassy Sunday morning the 19th. If you can get on it, you’ll be smiling. If not, well, blank runs like this happen around here – it’ll turn eventually.

Stay keen,
Rusty

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