Dunes Hotel (Miami) Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, mates, Rusty here. Let’s be straight with you. It’s been a rough stretch for the Miami area, and I’m not going to sugarcoat it. We’re looking at a serious dry spell for the next couple of weeks. The surf is small, weak, and mostly blown out. You wanna surf? You’re gonna have to work for it, and even then, it'll be a struggle.

The water temps are sitting around 87°, which is about 2° warmer than usual for this time of year. Not a big deal, just a touch on the warm side.

We’ve got a long stretch of nothing from now through the end of next week. We're talking about days of ankle-biters and choppy mush. The swell energy is just pathetic. For example, on Friday the 14th, we're looking at a 1ft SE swell with a weak 11 units of energy. It’s just wind ripples, not surf. The winds are mostly onshore or cross-onshore, chopping up what little bump there is. It's a real bummer.

The weekend of the 16th and 17th stays flat and messy. There’s a hint of a longer-period swell from the NE on Sunday, but it’s only 0.3ft. It’s not even worth mentioning as a wave. The 18th and 19th see some clean mornings with light offshore or glassy conditions, but the swell is still a pathetic 0.3ft. You could paddle around on a longboard and maybe catch a ripple, but it’s not surfing.

The whole week from the 18th to the 24th is basically the same story: tiny, weak swell and onshore winds in the afternoon. There’s a slight bump on Monday the 24th with 2ft, but it’s short-period, wind-affected junk. Not good.

Now, if you’ve got patience, the first real glimmer of hope shows up on Saturday, August 29th. It’s still not huge, but it's the best we've got. The morning looks cleanest with a light cross-offshore wind. We’re looking at a 2ft ENE swell with a period of 12 seconds. That’s a little more organized, and the energy jumps up to 140 units. It's still small, but it's a real wave. The direction is a bit angled, but it's on the right track.

Honestly, for a beginner, even this small stuff can be fun if the winds hold. But for anyone else, this is a "check the cam, maybe bring the foamie" kind of day. The afternoon looks worse, with the wind swinging onshore and the swell dropping slightly.

So, the long and short of it is: we have about a 14-day stretch of poor-to-terrible surf before we see that small, cleaner bump on the 29th. The last day is the one to watch. It’s not a standout by any means, but it’s all we’ve got. Keep your expectations low and your patience high.

Rusty out.

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