La Jolla Cove Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, mates. Rusty here with the straight-up on the next 16 days.

It’s a pretty bleak picture for La Jolla Cove. We’re looking at a long, dry spell right from the start. From Thursday the 23rd all the way through the end of the month, the surf is barely a ripple and the conditions are just plain ugly. The energy is weak, mostly between 30 and 120 (combined energy), with a mix of cross-onshore and cross-shore winds wrecking everything. The water is a crazy 74° right now, which is about 7° warmer than usual for this time of year – that’s a very unusual spike, so you’ll be sweating in your wetsuit.

The first real blip on the radar is Saturday afternoon, the 25th. There’s a sudden jump in energy (672 combined energy) with a 20-second period from the SW. That’s a very long period groundswell. The problem is it’s only 3 ft and the forecast calls it “marginal.” For a reef and point, that long period might make it a bit too straight, but it’s the only proper pulse of energy in the whole window. The wind is light cross-shore, which is okay, but don’t expect any real waves.

After that, it’s back to the dead zone. There are a few clean mornings, like Sunday the 26th and Wednesday the 29th, with cross-offshore winds, but the swell is barely 3 ft to 3 ft with a short period of 8-9 seconds. It’s clean, but it’s flat. The energy drops to almost nothing (99 combined energy or less) for most of the following week.

Heading into the second week, there’s a tiny bump around Monday the 3rd of August, with the energy picking up to 175-200 combined energy, but it’s still only 3 ft of short-period cross-shore junk. There’s a longer period pulse (15-16 seconds) on the 4th and 5th, but the wind is cross-on/onshore and the height is only 2 ft. Not worth the paddle.

The bottom line: La Jolla Cove is a beginner-friendly reef and point, but it’s a consistent spot that’s just not delivering. The only real standout, if you can even call it that, is Saturday afternoon, July 25th. That very long period SW groundswell (20 seconds) is a proper energy pulse, but it’s tiny and marginal. For a reef and point, that long period might actually help it bend a little, but it’s a real long shot. Everything else is flat, choppy, or cross-shore junk. For a break that’s usually reliable, this is a rough patch, but it won’t stay this way forever, and forecasts can change.

Rusty.

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