56th St Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright folks, Rusty here. Let’s be straight with you. The next couple of weeks are looking pretty grim for 56th St. I’ve been staring at the charts and there’s just no love for us in this stretch. We're looking at a long, flat spell.

The water is a warm 73° right now, which is a solid 7° warmer than it should be for this time of year. That’s a big deal—super unusual, and it hints at just how much things are out of whack. But warm water doesn't make waves.

The next 11 days are essentially a dead zone. We're talking about a solid stretch from Monday the 3rd through Friday the 14th where there is absolutely nothing worth paddling out for. The swell is tiny, mostly under 3ft, with weak energy readings in the low hundreds. The wind is a constant cross-onshore, adding a bit of chop to an already flat ocean. It’s just not happening.

There is one slight flicker of hope on Friday morning, August 14th. The energy finally wakes up, hitting 425, and the swell starts showing a bit more purpose from the SSW at 2ft. The period is a long 18 seconds, which is proper groundswell, but it’s still cross-on shore. It’s what I’d call a marginal call, not a green light. This long-period swell might have some push to it, but it’s still pretty small.

That promise doesn't last. The rest of the window into the following week just fades back into the same old story: small, weak, and messy. The 16th and 17th see the swell nudge up to 3ft with moderate energy, but the wind stays cross-shore or onshore.

Honestly, if this keeps up, the stronger winds and building, messy swell might make this stretch more interesting for the kite crew than us paddle surfers. We're just not going to get any clean, rideable waves here. It’s a blank run, plain and simple.

Keep the boards waxed anyway. It won’t stay poor forever, and forecasts can change.

Rusty.

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