81st Street Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, grab your coffee. This is Rusty.

Looks like we’ve got a long stretch of small, pretty ordinary surf ahead for 81st Street. The next 16 days are mostly flat or tiny with tricky winds, so you’ll be waiting a while for anything that’s worth a proper paddle. There’s a gap of several days with nearly nothing on offer, so patience is the name of the game.

Starting out, the first couple of days have next to no good options. The morning of Saturday the 4th shows tiny 1ft of SE swell with a 9-second period, and while the wind is offshore, the combined energy is weak (24). The afternoon worsens as a cross-shore messes it up.

Through Sunday the 5th and into the week, we stay in the doldrums with wave heights barely hitting 1ft. The combined energy stays below 35, meaning you’re looking at gutless, unexciting surf. Monday the 6th afternoon shows a bump to 3ft, but it’s a short-period 4-second windswell from the SE with only 39 energy, and cross-shore winds ruin the shape.

The pattern doesn’t really change until the second weekend. The morning of Saturday the 11th finally offers something vaguely surfable. A 2ft SE swell with 8-second period and a clean, light cross-offshore breeze makes it the first window where the conditions are tidy. The energy ticks up to 57, which isn’t strong, but the clean surface means you could find a fun little ripple if you’re desperate. Still, it’s “surfable but ordinary.” Crowds are sometimes a factor here, and with this being an inconsistent spot, that’s about right.

The rest of the forecast stays marginal. The morning of Sunday the 12th has another offshore moment with 1ft of swell, but the energy is low (23). The best of a bad bunch is actually the afternoon of Sunday the 12th: offshore wind with 3ft of short-period (4s) easterly windswell, giving 51 energy. It’s clean but gutless.

Monday the 13th brings the biggest swell of the outlook – 4ft – but it’s a 5-second windswell from the E with cross-onshore winds. That’s choppy, messy, and not worth your time.

From there it trails off again. The morning of Thursday the 16th has a clean 3ft NE swell with offshore wind (59 energy), but it’s still short-period (5s) and only ordinary. By the morning of Friday the 17th, you’ve got 2ft from the ENE at 6 seconds with an offshore breeze and 50 energy – again, clean but unexciting.

The final days of the forecast drop back to tiny, with poor onshore conditions over the weekend of the 18th and 19th.

Best bet overall: If you’re absolutely jonesing, the early morning of Saturday the 11th or the noon session on Sunday the 12th are your cleanest windows. They’re not going to blow your mind, but the water temperature is about average for the time of year, so you won’t freeze while you’re waiting for something worthwhile.

No standouts to get excited about here – just a long, flat stretch with a couple of very ordinary clean moments.

Stay patient, lads.
- Rusty.

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