Emma Wood State Beach Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Rusty here again. Let's have a look at the situation, and straight up, it’s a pretty lean stretch.

For Emma Wood State Beach over the next couple of weeks, we’re starting off with nothing much and it stays that way for a long while. There’s a big gap from Sunday the 5th all the way through to the middle of the month with no surf worth mentioning. The waves are tiny, the wind is often wrong, and the energy just doesn't show up.

Emma Wood is a beach and reef setup, pretty open to a SW swell. The water temp on the 5th is about 65°, which is a touch warmer than normal for the season. That’s about the only good news.

The first few days are flat and weak. On the 5th, it's a 0.4m SW swell with a super long 18-second period, but the energy is weak (122), and a stiff 20 km/h W cross-on breeze is ruining any chance of a clean wave. It’s poor. Monday the 6th and Tuesday the 7th are more of the same – a 0.4m to 0.7m SSW swell builds a little energy (peaking at 345 Tuesday afternoon), but the wind is onshore or cross-onshore, and it’s all messy.

All through that first week, it’s a repeat: small waves, poor conditions, wind working against us. The energy does push into the moderate range – over 400 on the morning of the 8th – but with strong onshore wind and a choppy sea, there’s no quality. A surfer would just watch from the beach. The period drops from those very long 18s to a more normal 16s, but the height never tops 0.7m that week.

Into the second week, it’s still a struggle. From the 10th to the 13th, we’re hanging onto 0.4m to 0.5m SSW swell. Light breezes help the surface a little, but the waves are just too small. The 14th is about as flat as it gets, with energy dropping to just 65 – a total washout.

Then around the 15th and 16th, there’s a little shift. A 0.8m to 0.9m W swell shows up with a short 8-9 second period. The energy climbs back (203 on the 16th morning), but the wind is still cross-onshore or onshore, and with that short period and small size, it’s still a poor option. Not the one to chase.

The final days, from the 17th to the 20th, go back to tiny 0.3m to 0.5m SW swell with periods stretching back out to 15-18 seconds. The energy is weak again, and the wind keeps it messy. There’s no standout day in sight.

The long and short of it: There are no good surf options in this 16-day stretch for Emma Wood. It’s a flat, drawn-out lull. For a spot that’s usually fairly consistent, a run like this is just part of the deal. The only crew that might get something out of this is the wind sports folks if the breeze picks up – for us paddle surfers, it’s a firm skip.

Rusty.

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