81st Street Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, Rusty here. Let's size up what's coming at 81st Street in the next couple weeks.

To be straight with you, it’s mostly a bust. We’ve got more than a week of weak, tiny surf that’s hardly worth the drive. The one real bright spot shows up later—on Thursday the 27th of August afternoon—when a NE swell pushes through with waves around 4 feet and a clean offshore wind out of the WSW. That’s your best session in the whole window. Combined swell energy sits at 165, which is moderate, so there’s some push, but it’s not gonna be pumping like a hurricane swell.

Before that, things are flat. From the 13th through to the morning of the 27th, wave heights stay small—mostly under 2 feet—with combined energy readings often under 40. The forecast keeps calling it “poor surf conditions.” We do get a few glassy mornings, like Sunday the 23rd with zero wind on 1 foot swell, but it’s tiny. For the first week, the wind is mostly cross-onshore or onshore, so even if there were waves, they’d be messy. A handful of mornings have clean conditions with light offshore breezes, but the swell just isn’t there.

Your go-to is Thursday the 27th afternoon. 81st Street is an exposed spot that prefers an ESE direction, but this 4-foot NE windswell at a short 6-second period won’t wrap in perfectly. Still, that offshore wind makes it the cleanest we’ll see for a while. It’s a beginner break, so if you’re new to it, that’s your chance. Crowds can show up sometimes, but with conditions so ordinary, you might get it to yourself.

The next morning, Friday the 28th, brings a bigger 6-foot ENE swell, but it’s shredded by a strong cross-shore wind. Combined energy hits 299—moderate to strong—but with that chop, it’ll be a battle.

Water temp is about average for this time of year, nothing weird going on.

Bottom line: the whole 16 days is a write-off except for that short window on Thursday the 27th afternoon. If you’re itching, that’s the time.

Rusty.

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