56th St Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, this is Rusty. Let’s have a look at the outlook for 56th St over the next couple of weeks. Straight up, I gotta tell you, it’s a flat, quiet run for the most part. The first week and a bit is pretty much a write-off.

We kick off around Friday, July 10th with a small 3ft swell pushing in from the SSW, but the wind is either cross-on or onshore, and the water’s all chopped up. The combined energy is weak to moderate at best (371), and the forecast is calling it poor. There is no standout session here, just a lot of white water and not much shape. This same pattern holds through Friday the 11th, Saturday the 12th, and right into the next week. The swell hangs around waist high but the wind never really gets right. It stays cross-on or onshore, making for messy conditions.

We hit a real flat spot from around Tuesday the 14th when the swell drops to 2ft, and then bottoms out to a tiny 1ft from Wednesday the 15th through to Friday the 17th. That’s a solid three or four days with barely a ripple. The energy drops down into the low hundreds (163, 153), and there’s just nothing to get excited about.

Finally, on Saturday, July 18th, we see a slight uptick. The morning offers 2ft of SW swell with a very long period of 18 seconds. The combined energy jumps to 497, which is moderate. The winds are light and onshore, so it’s not clean, but that long period groundswell will bring some shape. For a point or reef, that’d be gold, but 56th St is a sheltered beach setup, so that long period might make it break a bit too straight. Still, it’s a whisper of life. This is the closest we get to a highlight, but honestly, the conditions are still marginal and the combo of moderate energy and light onshore wind isn’t enough to call it a winner.

After that, the surf stays weak and small. Sunday the 19th shows some bump in energy (582, 669) but the swell is still only 3ft to 3ft and the wind is cross-on. The rest of the week into the 25th of July is more of the same – small SSW swells, onshore or cross-on breezes, and energy in the low to mid hundreds. By Saturday the 25th, we get a 3ft swell from the west with a short 8-second period and onshore wind. That’s junky.

The long and short of it is: there are no good surf options in this 16-day window for 56th St. The consistency is very consistent, but the quality is just not there. The water temperature is about average for the time of year. If you’re really itching, the morning of July 18th is the only time the numbers even hint at something rideable, but don’t expect much. Forecasts can change, but right now, this is a two-week lull.

— Rusty

Read more