Folly Beach Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Hey, Rusty here. Let's get real about Folly Beach for the next couple of weeks. It’s a real tough stretch ahead. Not a single session worth jumping out of bed for across the whole 16 days. The first chance you’ll even have to think about getting wet isn’t until Sunday, July 6th, and even then, it’s a long shot.

You can forget Thursday the 3rd and Friday the 4th – it’s flat and poor. Tiny, weak swell with bad wind. Grab a beer, don’t grab your board.

Saturday the 5th is a washout with a risk of thunderstorms and a 0.6ft swell from the ESE. Just not on.

Come Monday morning the 6th, we finally see a tiny pulse. The morning is clean with a light cross-offshore breeze, but the swell is a pathetic 0.3ft from the SE. The combined energy is basically zero at 3. Tuesday morning the 7th is the best of a bad lot – a clean 3ft south swell with a 6-second period, and a WSW cross-offshore wind will have the surface looking alright. The combined energy is a weak 67. You could get a longboard out if you’re really jonesing, but don’t expect any power.

The rest of the week is a mess of choppy, lumpy conditions. Mid-week (9th through 12th), we get a little more push – a 4ft south swell on Thursday the 9th afternoon and Sunday the 12th afternoon, with combined energy hitting 100 and 124. But the wind is just plain ugly – fresh cross-shore and cross-onshore, making everything bumpy and disorganised. That south swell is a short-period wind swell too, so it’ll be mushy. Water’s warm, 84°, which is a touch warmer than normal – nice for floating, not so much for the waves.

The second week is more of the same misery. A little more energy shows up Wednesday the 15th morning with a 4ft SSE swell (121 combined energy), but again it’s blown out by fresh cross-shore winds. Through Thursday the 16th and into Friday the 17th, there’s waist-high SE swell, but the wind is mostly onshore or cross-onshore and fresh. All poor conditions.

Look, Folly is a consistent beach, but the forecast is a total dud. The wind is never good, the swell is small and weak, and the waves will be a sloppy mess. Honestly, for most of this period, the setup looks more fun for a kite surfer than a surfer, especially those afternoons with 15-18 mph south winds. For the rest of us? It’s a good time to take a break. Forecasts can change, but right now, I wouldn’t hold my breath.

Rusty.

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