Galveston - Flagship Pier Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Hey, Rusty here. Gotta be straight with you – the surf scene in Galveston is looking real flat for a while.

We’re looking at a solid stretch with hardly anything to ride, from now all the way through to the 2nd of September. The wave energy is super weak, with combined swell energy numbers mostly in the single digits or low double digits (1 to 30). That’s tiny, weak stuff. It’s all knee-high slop at best, with a lot of cross-onshore winds making things choppy. There are no standout days, no real swell to get excited about.

Let’s talk about Galveston - Flagship Pier (beach/pier). The water temp is around 87°, which is a touch warmer than normal for the time of year.

Every single session from Tuesday the 18th onward is marked as "poor surf conditions." The biggest swell we see is a 3ft on the afternoon of the 26th of August, but with a short 4-second period and a fresh cross-onshore wind at 19 mph, it’s just lumpy and messy. A few mornings look clean – like the 21st, 22nd, 23rd, and 25th – but the swell is only 1ft to 2ft, with periods of 4 to 5 seconds. Not enough to do much with. There’s a glassy morning on the 28th of August with a 2ft swell from the ENE, but again, a weak 4-second period and low energy (17). It’s clean, but flat.

After that, it’s all tiny windswell or nothing – 0.3ft to 0.7ft. The combined energy drops into the single digits. This is a true flat spell.

If you’re really jonesing, the cleanest windows are the mornings of the 22nd, 23rd, and 27th of August, with light offshore winds and a tiny 2ft to 2ft swell. But even then, it’s a real struggle. For beginners, stay home. For experts, there’s nothing to even look at. Honestly, with the wind we’ve got, this stretch looks more interesting for kite surfing than paddle surfing.

It’s a long dry run. Don’t lose hope – it usually doesn’t stay this poor for long.

Rusty.

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