57th Street Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, Rusty here, lookin’ at what’s cookin’ for 57th Street over the next couple of weeks. Got to be straight with you – the next sixteen days are a real mixed bag, and mostly a frustrating one. The waves are small, the winds are messy, and there’s not a lot to get excited about. This is a sandbar spot, so it needs a bit of love to work, and for the most part, we ain’t getting it.

The water is sitting about 77° right now, and that's a full 6° warmer than it should be for this time of year – proper unusual, like the ocean forgot the season.

Looking ahead, there’s a long stretch of tiny, weak swell. For pretty much the first week, from Saturday the 12th right through to Friday the 18th, you’re looking at waves barely hitting 1 ft to 3 ft. The energy is pathetic – mostly in the teens and twenties (combined energy around 15 to 72). Winds are mostly onshore or cross-onshore, which is the last thing you want on small surf. A few afternoons have a glassy moment, like Sunday the 13th afternoon with a light NW offshore, but the swell is just too small to make it worth paddling out for anything real. The period is short too, mostly 5 to 9 seconds, so it’s just wind chop.

The slight glimmer in the whole outlook is around Wednesday the 23rd and Thursday the 24th. The swell picks up a bit, with waves around 5 ft to 5 ft coming from the ESE, with a period around 9 to 10 seconds. The energy climbs to moderate levels (343 to 383 combined energy). Now, the problem is the wind – it’s swinging all over the place. On Wednesday it’s a messy cross-onshore, then on the Thursday we get a solid NNE wind at 25 mph, but it’s cross-offshore, keeping the surface clean. That Thursday morning (24th September) is the pick of the bunch: a clean 5 ft ESE swell. But it is a strong breeze, so it’ll be a battle. This is really only for experienced surfers who don’t mind a fight for a set.

By Friday the 25th, the swell drops back fast, down to 3 ft and clean but fading, and from there it’s back to tiny, poor-quality surf with lumpy cross-chop through to the end of the period. Saturday the 26th and Sunday the 27th have just 1 ft to 2 ft leftovers.

Honestly, if you’ve got a kite, the conditions from the 21st to the 24th, with that 5 ft to 6 ft chop and strong cross-onshore wind, are way more interesting for a session on a board with a kite than a paddle board.

Signing off – Rusty.

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