81st Street Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Well, grab a coffee, because this is one of those outlooks where we’re gonna be doing a lot of looking at the ocean and not a whole lot of surfing, at least for a while. The next 16 days for 81st Street are looking pretty flat and blown out for the most part. We’ve got a long stretch of small, weak surf with a lot of onshore and cross-shore winds messing things up. It’s not a total shutdown, but you’re going to be working hard for anything rideable.

The first real chance of anything decent doesn’t show up until Friday, August 28th. The morning session looks clean with a light offshore wind from the WSW, but the swell is tiny, only 1ft from the ESE with an 8-second period. The combined energy is a weak 43. It’s surfable, but you’ll be on a longboard and hunting for any bit of push. Don't get too excited; it's just about getting wet.

From there, we slip back into a poor run of tiny waves and messy winds right through the weekend and into the following week. There’s a lot of days with just 1ft to 1ft of swell, and the wind is all over the place. You get a bit of a cleaner window on Monday morning, August 31st, with a light offshore, but it’s still just 1ft and the period drops to 7 seconds. It’s weak, it’s short-period, and it’s not worth planning your day around.

We finally see a little bump in energy around Thursday, September 3rd. Thursday afternoon is looking glassy with the wind dropping to nothing. The swell ticks up to 1ft, but the period is still a short 9 seconds. Still small, but clean. Then things start to get a bit more interesting.

Friday, September 4th, brings a pulse of new energy. The swell jumps to 3ft to 3ft from the ENE, with the combined energy reading 96 in the morning and 109 in the afternoon. That's a moderate amount of juice, but unfortunately, the wind is a moderate cross-onshore from the NE, making it choppy and junky. This is that classic case where the setup looks more interesting for a kite surfer than a paddle surfer. The waves will be there, but the surface will be a mess.

That new swell sticks around for Saturday the 5th, with 2ft from the ENE and the energy still in the low 100s, but it’s straight onshore. That’s going to be a washout. Sunday, September 6th, sees a bit more size, around 4ft, but the period drops to a dismal 6 seconds. Add in light rain and a cross-onshore wind, and you’ve got a recipe for closeouts and chop. Not good.

We do get one clean window late in the period. On Monday, September 7th, the swell holds around 2ft, but the wind goes light onshore. Not great. But then on Tuesday morning, September 8th, we get a clean morning with a light cross-offshore breeze. The swell has backed off to 1ft, but with a 9-second period, it might be the most user-friendly surf of the whole window. It’s small, but it’s clean.

The last few days of the outlook are more of the same, tiny swells and moderate winds. We see another clean-ish window on Wednesday and Thursday mornings, September 9th and 10th, with light cross-offshore winds, but again the swell is only 1ft to 2ft. It’s just not enough to get excited about.

So, to be straight with you, the best bet in this whole 16-day run is probably that Friday the 28th morning, just because it’s clean. But honestly, the standout, if you can call it that, might be the glassy Thursday afternoon on September 3rd, or the clean Tuesday morning on September 8th. The swell is small everywhere, so it’s all about getting a clean, glassy surface to make the most of the ankle-biters. It’s a long, flat spell, and this break is inconsistent at the best of times, so this blank run is not unusual. Forecasts can change, though, so keep an eye on it.

This is Rusty, signing off. Keep your stick on the rack for now, but don’t sell it.

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