Huntington Beach Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, let’s get real about the next couple of weeks. Honestly, it’s looking pretty flat and sad out there for a while. We’ve got a stretch of small, jumbled-up surf that’s going to test your patience more than your paddle strength. The first real window of anything even close to rideable doesn’t show up until the morning of Wednesday, August 12th, and even then, it’s a marginal call. Before that, we’re talking about ankle-biters and knee-high slop with a lot of onshore wind messing it up. From the 4th through the 11th, it’s a whole lot of nothing. The swell energy is weak, mostly hanging around the 90s to the 300s (like 94 to 330), which just isn’t enough to push any real shape through. The water is warm, though, a solid 74°F with a 7°F anomaly, which is very unusual for this time of year. That’s about the only bright spot.

When things finally try to pick up, it’s not going to be clean. On the morning of the 12th, there’s a tiny bump of 2ft SW swell, but the forecast flags it as marginal. A bit more energy arrives on the 14th, with a 2ft SSW groundswell with a 19-second period, and the energy reading jumps to 522. That’s a sign of a more powerful, longer-period swell, which is good for the points, but here at Huntington Beach, a beach break, that long period can make it close out and be a bit fat. The wind is still a problem, with a moderate cross-onshore chop in the afternoon.

The real standout, if you can call it that, looks like the morning of Saturday, August 15th. We’ve got a 3ft SSW swell with a 16-second period, and the energy is up there at 587. The wind is light and cross-on, which is the cleanest we’ll see. It’s still not big, but it’s the best of a pretty poor bunch. Remember, this is over a week away, so treat it as promising, but don't book the day off work just yet. The swell direction is SSW, which matches the optimum for the break, so that’s a point in its favor. The crowds will be a factor, though, because it’s Huntington Beach, and people will be out for anything. After that, things taper off again into the following week, with energy dropping back down and the wind staying on it. It’s a real grind, folks. Keep your expectations low and your wax fresh.

Rusty

Read more