57th Street Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright folks, Rusty here. Let's have a look at what's on the cards for 57th Street over the next couple of weeks. I gotta be straight with you – it's a lean run. There are no standout days where everything clicks, so we're just looking for the cleanest windows to get wet.

The water's sitting at 77°, which is a touch warmer than normal for this time of year, so that feels pretty nice. But the surf itself? It's small, and for the most part, the conditions are pretty ordinary. The swell is coming from the southeast for the most part, which is the optimum direction for this sandbar, but the size is tiny – we're looking at 1 ft for days on end. And the period is short, usually around 8 seconds, so it's weak and crumbly with a combined energy reading that's barely getting out of double digits.

The first real chance of a surf that doesn't feel like a waste of time looks like the morning of Friday August 28th. The swell bumps up just a touch to 2 ft from the southeast with moderate energy (101), and we get a clean, cross-offshore wind from the west. It's still small, but it's rideable. That afternoon the wind switches and the quality drops.

After that, it goes back to pretty poor for a long stretch. We've got a few scattered mornings where the wind goes offshore or glassy, like Monday August 31st morning with a northwest cross-off, and Wednesday September 2nd with a clean cross-off wind from the west-northwest. On that Wednesday afternoon, the swell gets a little longer period at 11 seconds, and the energy picks up a bit (66). The wave height is still tiny at 2 ft, so it's not exciting, but it's clean.

Then things get really messy from around September 5th into the second week. The swell tries to build, but it's accompanied by fresh winds and lumpy conditions. By September 7th, we see the swell energy jump into the three-digit range (153 and 181), with waist-high waves from the east, but the cross-onshore wind just chops it all up. It's not a paddle surfer's scene.

The best chance we get in the whole 16-day window is the morning of Wednesday September 9th. The swell is still only 2 ft from the east-southeast, but the period stretches out to a very long 12 seconds. That groundswell energy (151) should wrap in here with some push. And the wind goes moderate offshore from the northwest, cleaning it right up. The crowd factor? It's 57th Street, so it *sometimes* gets busy, but on a small clean day like that, it shouldn't be too bad. That's the day I'd put on the calendar, but treat it as a promising long-range call more than a guarantee.

The rest of the second week is a whole lot of the same story – small, onshore, or cross-shore winds, with only a few brief windows of offshore wind promising a clean surface, but not enough wave to really get going. If you absolutely need to get in the water, aim for those clean, offshore mornings, but manage your expectations.

This is Rusty, signing off.

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