Jelly Bowl Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright folks, Rusty here. Let’s get straight into it.

Well, I gotta be honest with you – for the next 16 days, Jelly Bowl is looking like a real tough ticket. We’ve got a long stretch of small, weak surf with nearly constant cross-onshore or onshore wind messing things up. The reports are all saying "poor surf conditions" every single day, so don’t get your hopes up.

Looking at the whole picture, the combined wave energy is mostly weak, sitting in the double digits for the first week (like 64, 86, 119, 145 – all under 200). The swell height barely gets over 1 ft for most of the period, with a short-lived bump around August 15th–16th when it hits 2 ft to 2 ft, and the energy climbs into the 200s (241, 261), but that’s still only moderate. The wind is never truly offshore at this spot – it’s either cross-on or onshore from the south or southwest, 6 to 9 mph, just enough to keep the surface bumpy. A few times the wind is light, but it’s still cross-onshore, so it’s never clean.

The period on the swell is mostly long, around 13 to 19 seconds, which is proper groundswell, but with such tiny heights and poor wind, it doesn’t matter. That long period means the waves are weak and fat on a reef break like Jelly Bowl, and the cross-onshore chop just finishes it off.

The water temp is about average for this time of year – nothing unusual there.

The one standout, if you can call it that, is around August 14th to 16th. On the morning of the 14th, the energy jumps to 199 with a 1 ft SSW swell and 19-second period, and the wind is onshore but light. By the 15th, we see 2 ft to 2 ft, still SSW, with the energy in the 240s, but the wind is cross-onshore from the WSW at 6–9 mph. That’s the best the whole run gets, but it’s still not good. The 20th shows a weird 5 ft W swell with only 6-second period, but the wind is cross-onshore and the period is so short it’ll be a mess.

So, no real standout days. The whole 16 days is a gap of poor surf. If you’re desperate, the morning of August 14th or the 15th might offer the smallest chance at a knee-high wave with some energy, but it’s a long shot.

Rusty, signing off.

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