81st Street Surf Forecast and Surf Report

G'day, Rusty here, and I gotta be straight with ya – we're lookin' at a pretty bleak stretch ahead. For the next week or so, the conditions are just not cooperating. It's gonna be tough to find anything worthwhile. The water temp is a touch warmer than normal, sitting at about 80°, which is nice, but it's the only nice thing I can say.

Starting off Monday the 6th, it's flat and hopeless. We've got a tiny 1ft swell from the SSE, but the energy is weak (14). The morning might be glassy, but the swell is just too small to do anything with. Monday arvo, the wind swings onshore and it's a choppy mess.

Tuesday the 7th is even smaller – a 1ft wave from the ESE. The morning glass-off is tempting, but with a period of 10 seconds and that tiny wave height, you'd be fighting for little crumbles. The energy is still weak (29). The afternoon brings the risk of a thunderstorm and messy cross-onshore wind.

We stay in this poor zone through Wednesday and Thursday. The swell pushes up to 3ft on Wednesday arvo the 8th, but it's a short-period wind swell (5 seconds), onshore, and just messy. Energy bumps up a bit (68), but it's ugly.

Friday morning the 10th is the first flicker of something slightly better – a clean 2ft wave from the SE with a cross-offshore wind. It's still very ordinary, but it's the best we've seen. That's it, though. The rest of Friday and Saturday are back to being poor.

Sunday the 12th is dreadful. A strong NNE wind hits on Monday the 13th, with gusts up to 25 mph, making it lumpy and messy. The swell is still tiny. That whole week has basically nothing on offer.

Now, in the second week, things don't really improve. We get a hint of a clean offshore wind on Wednesday morning the 15th, but the swell is still a pathetic 1ft. By Friday the 17th, we get the largest waves of the whole outlook – a 3ft swell from the SE with an 8-second period, and it's clean with a light, cross-offshore breeze. The energy is moderate (85). This is your best bet, but "best bet" is relative – this is surfer's welfare, not a classic. Sunday the 19th morning has a clean 2ft wave (energy of 49), and Tuesday the 21st morning has a 3ft wave from the SE (energy 44) with a clean cross-offshore wind. Still, nothing is pushing past the "ordinary" mark.

Honestly, for 81st Street, this is a blank run. The swell just never gets enough size to be interesting. Combined with the constant onshore and cross-onshore winds, it's a tough stretch. If you're desperate for a paddle, aim for Friday the 17th morning or Sunday the 19th morning for the cleanest, most surfable little waves on offer. But don't get your hopes up.

Rusty.

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