Indian River (Southside) Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, let's get into it. Rusty here, and I gotta be straight with you – this next stretch for Indian River (Southside) is one of the quietest runs I've seen in a while. We're looking at a long, drawn-out lull that pretty much kills the first week and a half for any kind of decent paddle.

For the first nine days, from Saturday the 29th of August through to Tuesday the 8th of September, it's a flat spell. We're talking tiny dribbles of 1ft to 2ft coming from the SE and ENE, with periods mostly hanging around 7 to 8 seconds. That’s weak, close-range stuff with hardly any push. The combined swell energy barely cracks 100 for the whole stretch – mostly sitting in the teens, twenties, and thirties (weak energy). Winds are a mess too, with a lot of cross-on and onshore breezes making things choppy and messy. There is a tiny window on the morning of the 5th of September where it goes glassy, but with only 1ft of swell, there's just nothing to ride. It’s a tough go, and honestly, this kind of blank run is pretty normal for the area when the trade winds get unruly. For a beach/jetty setup like this, those conditions look way more interesting for kite surfing than paddle surfing.

Now, there's a flicker of life on Wednesday the 9th of September, but it's not the one to get excited about. The morning shows a bump to 3ft from the east with a 7-second period, and the wind goes cross-off from the SSW, leaving it clean. The energy climbs to 164 (moderate), but the wave quality comment says it best – "surfable waves but very ordinary conditions". It's there, but it’s not pretty.

The real standout, the one bright spot in this whole outlook, rolls in on Saturday the 12th of September. The morning session is the pick of the entire forecast. We've got clean 4ft of swell from the ENE. The period is short at 5 seconds, which is a bit of a bummer – it's windswell, so expect fat, crumbly sections rather than a nice peak. But the wind is dead calm, glassy. That's the key here – glassy conditions at this break are rare and will make even small, weak swell rideable. The energy is still only 98 (weak), so don't expect any power, but for a longboard or a funboard with some friends on a Saturday morning, it will be the best thing we see. After that morning, the afternoon jumps up to 5ft, which starts pushing into intermediate territory, and the wind swings cross-shore, bringing the chop right back.

We get one last look on the 13th of September with clean conditions but only 2ft, and then it’s back to the flatness.

Final call: If you’re desperate for a surf, the glassy early morning of Saturday the 12th is your only real shout. Everything else is a washout. The water temp is sitting at 76°F, which is a touch warmer than typical for late August – not a game changer, but nice for a paddle on those 1ft days.

Rusty.

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