56th St Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, Rusty here. Let’s talk about what we’ve got coming up at 56th St.

Not gonna lie, looking at this whole 16-day window, it’s a pretty flat and frustrating picture. You’re looking at a long stretch of small, weak, and mostly messy conditions. The energy is just not there for anything worth paddling out for. There's a real desert from now all the way through to the end of the month. If you’re desperate for a splash, you might find something, but it won’t be good.

The whole run starts off with a tiny, weak 2ft swell from the SSW on Monday the 10th, but the wind is cross-on and the combined energy is only 283 (moderate wave energy), and the report calls it poor surf. The water temp is sitting at 73° – that’s much warmer than usual for this time of year, which is a weird novelty but doesn’t help the waves.

Tuesday through Thursday stay poor. Swell hangs around 2ft to 3ft, mostly from the SSW or SW, and the wind stays cross-on. Periods are all over the place – 13 seconds, 16, 18 – but with that tiny height, the long period just means long waits for nothing. Energy fluctuates between 178 and 334 (weak to moderate). No good.

Friday the 14th and Saturday the 15th see the energy building slightly – we hit 403 and then 563 on Saturday afternoon (moderate wave energy) – but the swell is still only 3ft to 3ft. Saturday afternoon at least flips to a cross-shore wind from the WNW, and the report calls it marginal rather than a total write-off. That’s about the closest you’ll get to something rideable, but it's still not a standout. The swell is from the SSW, and this spot wants SW, so the direction is a bit off.

After that, it drops back into the doldrums. From Sunday the 16th all the way to Tuesday the 25th, it’s the same story: tiny waves from the SSW or SW, heights barely cracking 3ft, and winds that are either cross-on or onshore. Energy levels slump back into the 200–400 range. There’s a short moment on the morning of Wednesday the 19th with light onshore wind from the SSW and 3ft waves, but the period is 15 seconds – that’s a long-period groundswell, which can be tricky on a beach break setup like this, making it break too straight.

Honestly, for the whole 16 days, there isn’t one session I’d get excited about. No true standouts. If you have a kite, the bigger afternoons with the 12 mph cross or cross-on winds on the 17th might be more your thing than a paddle surf. For everyone else, it’s a waiting game. It tends not to stay this quiet for long, forecasts change, but right now, it’s a blank run.

Rusty.

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