Isla Vista Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, let me start looking into what we got here. It's a tough stretch for the next sixteen days — I'll tell you that right now. We're looking at Isla Vista, which is a beach and reef setup, fairly exposed to the west. It can work, but this whole run is one of those "wait for it" kind of windows.

To be honest, if you paddle out at Isla Vista at any point over this whole forecast, you are going to be scratching your head. The swell energy is weak the entire time, with values between 100 and 500, and that's mostly from tiny, short-period windswell. The few longer-period pulses — like that 18-second and even 19-second stuff you see in the second week — are still just too small to push any real power. The water temp is about average for this time of year, nothing standout there.

The only glimmer is maybe on Sunday the 13th early. That morning has 4 ft of swell from the WNW at 8 seconds — it's short period and cross-onshore, but with a combined energy of 343 it's the most we see for a while. It's still marginal and I'd call it a "maybe if you're desperate" session. By afternoon it gets bigger but messier.

After that, from Sunday afternoon through to the 27th, it’s a bleak run. The surf barely cracks 3 ft for most of it, and when it does it's messy, short period, and the wind is either onshore or cross-onshore. We go many days in a row — from the 14th to the 27th — with nothing but poor surf conditions. There is a pulse on the 20th with a combined energy of 464 but the swell is chopped up with a cross-onshore breeze. It’s not worth the battle.

The best option I can honestly give you is if you want to sit on a longboard and float around — maybe the morning of Sunday the 27th could be glassy with a light onshore. Swell is tiny at 2 ft, but the energy is actually building (343) and that 18-second period is pure groundswell. For a reef and point setup like Isla Vista, that long-period swell might actually wrap in better and give you some cleaner lines than the short stuff. But it’s still a gamble this far out.

Bottom line: unless you love knee-high chop and cross-onshore winds, I'd say let this one slide. The consistency simply isn't here. This is a normal pattern for this area when the trade wind swell shuts down. It won't stay like this forever, forecasts do change, but right now? I'm parking my board.

Rusty.

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