57th Street Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, this is Rusty.

Look, I gotta be straight with you. This 16-day stretch is a tough one. The whole window is a series of flat, weak days with only knee-to-waist high slop at best. There's never enough energy to get a proper wave face, and the combined swell energy barely ticks over 100 (moderate) for a couple of hours mid-week, then drops straight back into the weak category (under 100). There is no standout, no day to circle, no real reason to drag your board down to the sand.

The only break on the books is 57th Street, a sandbar setup. It's a beginner-friendly spot, but even beginners will find this frustrating. The water is running a staggering 6° warmer than normal for early September, which feels weird, like swimming in a bath. That's very unusual.

Let's run through the misery chronologically. Tuesday morning you've got a tiny 0.7ft easterly with glassy conditions, but that’s a lake, not surf. Wednesday picks up to 2ft, but it's a messy 4-second windswell from the south-southwest with a cross-shore wind at 12 mph—barely ridable. Thursday morning sees the "peak" of the run: a 4ft south-southwest swell, period still only 6 seconds, with a cross-offshore wind. The combined energy reads a feeble 112. It’s the best of a bad lot, but it’s weak, weak, weak.

Friday onward it’s back below 3ft with onshore winds. Saturday the 12th you get 2ft of 3-second junk from the southeast—that’s pure wind-chop. Sunday the 13th, a stormy 4ft from the south with a 5-second period and risk of thunderstorms. Monday the 14th goes glassy again but on a pathetic 1ft. The pattern repeats with tiny, short-period swell and onshore or messy wind direction through to the end of the window.

There is a brief flicker of proper offshore wind from the northwest on the 16th and 22nd, but the swell is only 1ft to 2ft, so it’s unsurfable. A clean sea state doesn’t help if you can’t catch anything.

For a sandbar beach break like this, with such poor wave quality and significant onshore wind at times, the whole setup honestly looks more interesting for kite surfing than paddle surfing. At least a kite could get planing on that light wind. For a surfer? Save your energy. The forecasts can always change, but right now, this is a solid 16-day miss.

- Rusty

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