Isla Vista Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, Rusty here. Let’s take a good, hard look at what’s coming for Isla Vista. I gotta be straight with you, the next couple of weeks are looking flat and frustrating. We’ve got a long stretch of poor conditions ahead, with no real standout sessions. You’ll be waiting a while.

Starting from Thursday, September 3rd, and right through the first week, the surf is weak and messy. Thursday morning has a tiny 2 ft SW swell with a super long 15-second period, and the combined energy is only 246 (weak). It’s clean with a light WSW breeze, but there’s just nothing to ride. Thursday afternoon gets worse with a cross-onshore wind chopping it up. Friday, September 4th, is a little bigger at 3 ft from the SSW, but it’s still just a marginal call, and the cross-onshore wind ruins it again. This pattern keeps rolling through the weekend and into the start of next week—tiny, choppy, and poor. The water temp on that first morning is sitting at a very unusual 70°, which is much warmer than normal for this time of year.

There’s a bit of a pulse around Monday, September 7th, with the swell bumping up to 4 ft from the south (14-second period) and energy climbing to 487 (moderate). But the wind is light and onshore or cross-onshore, keeping the surface chopped up. It’s still a poor surf call. That’s about as good as it gets for a while, and that’s not saying much.

The second week doesn’t offer much relief. There’s a slight increase on Friday, September 11th, with a 4 ft WSW swell, but it’s a short 12-second period and the energy is high at 711 (strong). Unfortunately, the wind is cross-onshore and moderate, making it choppy and ugly. Saturday, September 12th, sees a weird 5 ft WNW swell with a pitiful 5-second period, which is just wind slop—not worth paddling out for. The rest of the week fades back to tiny surf, with only the occasional long-period groundswell showing up, like on Thursday, September 17th, with a 1 ft SW swell and a very long 21-second period. That kind of period can make for nice lines on a point or reef, but at Isla Vista (beach and reef), it’s likely to break too straight and be hard to catch with such a small height.

Honestly, the only session that even looks borderline is Friday morning, September 18th. That’s over two weeks away, so take it with a grain of salt. It’s got a 2 ft SW swell with a solid 20-second period and moderate energy of 442, and the wind is light and offshore from the SW. That could be clean, but it’s a long-range guess and the swell is tiny.

Overall, this is a tough run. The surf quality is consistently poor, and the wind is nearly always cross-onshore or onshore. For a beach-and-reef setup like this, with these small, messy swells and steady wind, it’s looking more like a stretch for the kites than for a paddle. Hang in there, and keep an eye on the long-range stuff—forecasts change.

- Rusty

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