Ditch Plains Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, folks, Rusty here. Let’s be straight with you. The next couple of weeks are looking pretty grim for a proper paddle. We’ve got a long stretch of flat, weak, and messy conditions ahead. Don’t get too excited about any of it just yet.

We’re looking at a run starting this Friday, the 14th, with basically nothing on offer. The swell is tiny, just 0.7ft, and while the morning is glassy, the energy is pathetic. That flat spell is going to hang around for a few days, with nothing but knee-high slop and onshores messing things up. It’s a real blank stretch until things start to show a bit of life early next week.

Come Monday the 17th, that south-southeast swell bumps up to about 5ft in the morning, with a moderate combined energy reading (223). But there’s a risk of thunderstorms and a cross-shore wind that’ll chop it up. It’s not the clean, glassy surf you want; it’s more of a messy, lumpy option that only the keenest will consider. The afternoon cleans up a touch with a cross-offshore wind, but the swell drops back to 4ft and the energy backs off to 194. It’s still pretty ordinary, to be honest.

The rest of the week stays in that same poor-to-marginal zone. There’s a window on Tuesday morning the 18th with some clean 3ft surf (energy 74) and light winds, but it’s small and weak. There’s another flash on Thursday afternoon, the 20th, where it bumps to 3ft with a clean cross-offshore wind, but again, it’s not magic. The main issue is the lack of any real power. The combined energy readings are mostly in the double and low triple digits, which tells you there’s nothing behind it.

The real standout in this whole sorry stretch, if you can call it that, is early on Tuesday the 25th. The morning sees a 4ft south-southwest swell with a clean cross-offshore wind, and the energy reading climbs to a moderate 120. It’s the best combination of size and clean conditions we see in the whole run. But the afternoon turns to junk with a fresh 19 mph cross-shore wind, so you’d want to be on it early. Beyond that, it’s more of the same – small, weak, and not worth getting your hopes up for.

There are a couple of cleaner afternoons at the very end of the window on the 28th and 29th, but the swell is only 2ft. It’s clean and rideable on a longboard, but you’ll be scratching for anything of consequence.

The water temp at Ditch Plains (Montauk) is 72°, which is right about average for this time of year. Nothing weird going on there.

So, bottom line: this isn’t a period for epic sessions. If you’re desperate, the Tuesday the 25th morning is your best bet. Everything else is a gamble on weak, windblown dribble. Keep your expectations low and your longboard handy.

Rusty.

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