48th Street Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright folks, Rusty here. Gotta be straight with you: we’re in for a long, flat spell. It’s gonna test your patience. There’s a couple of little blips, but mostly it’s a waiting game.

This Sunday the 16th is a complete bust. Tiny, weak waves and cross-shore winds. Don’t even bother.

Now, Monday the 17th, that’s our first real chance. It’s not the size, it’s the clarity. We’ve got a light offshore breeze in the morning, cleaning up a 4ft swell from the south. It’s weak, sure, with a period of 6 seconds, and the energy is low, but it’ll be the cleanest we see for a while. The afternoon glass off even more, but the swell backs down a touch.

Then we just go flat. From Tuesday the 18th right through the rest of that week, it’s tiny, grovelly slop. There are moments of glassy conditions, like Wednesday the 19th, but there’s barely a ripple to ride. The winds are all over the place and there’s just no power. This is one of those stretches where you’d be better off checking the sandbars at dead low and hoping for a miracle.

Cast your eyes to the end of the month. Around the 26th and 27th, the energy charts start to spike, but the wave height stays small, around 1ft to 2ft. It’s a tease. It does look like it might be clean, with some offshore winds, and at 48th Street (Atlantic Coast), a longer-period ESE swell could make for some fun, walled-off waves on the points. But it’s a week out, so I wouldn’t book the time off work yet.

The real kicker comes on the 29th of August. The swell arrives in force, building from 5ft on Saturday to a solid 7ft by Monday the 31st. The energy is huge, from 182 all the way up to 503. This is serious ocean. But, and it’s a big but, the period is a short 6-7 seconds, and the wind is blowing onshore from the east at 15-20 mph with rain showers around. This is going to be a stormy, blown-out mess. That size at 48th Street, a beach/jetty break, with that wind is a full-on closeout. It’s for experts only, and even then, it’s going to be ugly. Honestly, at that point, you’re better off with a kite than a board.

So, what’s the call? The best bet is Monday the 17th for a clean, small-wave session if you need a fix. The bigger stuff at the end of the month is full of storm energy and poor conditions. It’s a long stretch of nothing in between, but a few consistent days on the forecast keeps a little hope alive.

Keep the wax dry, and the patience high. This is Rusty, out.

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