Fort Walton Pier Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright folks, Rusty here. Let's be straight with you about the surf outlook for the next couple of weeks.

Well, I’ve gotta be honest, the forecast for the entire 16-day window is a real bummer. We’re looking at a long stretch of flat, weak, and messy conditions. The best I can say is that the first few days are a write-off and it doesn't get much better from there. There are no standout days, no hidden gems, no real surf to speak of.

Let's start with Fort Walton Pier. Right from Thursday, July 30th, it’s a tough scene. A tiny 1ft swell from the WSW with a shockingly short 4-second period and weak combined energy (5) – that’s barely a ripple. Add in a risk of thunderstorms and a cross-onshore wind, and you’ve got poor, choppy conditions. The water’s a warm 85°F, which is pretty average for this time of year, but that’s about the only thing going for it.

We drift through the end of July and into the first week of August with the same story. The swell hovers between 2ft and 4ft, but it’s all wind-swell with periods of 4 to 6 seconds. The combined energy never breaks into triple digits, maxing out at a weak 98. The winds are mostly cross-onshore, making for a choppy, bumpy surface. The morning of Monday, August 3rd, gives us a brief moment of clean conditions with a cross-offshore wind, but the swell is still a weak 4ft (SSW, 6 sec) and only 98 energy – it’s clean but gutless.

Then, we hit a real dead zone. From Tuesday, August 4th, right through to the end of the forecast on Friday, August 14th, the swell drops to almost nothing. We’re talking 0.3ft to 2ft, with combined energy often in the single digits. There are a couple of glassy mornings on Tuesday, August 4th, and Thursday, August 6th, with light winds, but the swell is so tiny it’s barely surfable. The wave comment on the 4th says it all: "surfable waves but very ordinary conditions" – and that’s the best we get.

Even the longest period we see, a 10-second pulse on Sunday, August 9th, is only pushing 0.3ft. It’s a cruel joke.

So, what’s the call? The honest truth is I don’t have a single day or a single break to point you to. There’s nothing here worth paddling out for. The whole 16-day run is a flat, choppy mess. It’s the kind of stretch where you’re better off checking the kite forecast, because with the wind we’ve got, that’s where the action will be. For now, it’s a time to wax the longboard and wait for the next system.

Rusty.

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