Lake Ferry Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, grab your wettie and listen up. Rusty here, and I've been staring at the charts for Lake Ferry, and it's a bit of a mixed bag, a real tale of two weeks.

The First Week: Patience, Then Power

Right now, things are flat and pretty average. We're looking at a couple of days of small, weak surf, with the energy reading in the low hundreds or less. Not worth getting too excited about. The water's sitting around 56°, which is a touch warmer than normal for this time of year, so that's one small blessing.

Then, just when you think it's a write-off, things switch on. Friday morning looks like the first real call. We've got a SSW swell pushing in at 6ft with a short, punchy 7-second period, and the energy jumps to a solid 561. The wind is dead glassy too. This will be a fun, if not a bit disorganized, beach break. It's not huge, but it'll be clean and contestable for the experienced crew.

But hold on. Saturday afternoon is where things get serious. The swell is predicted to jack up to a solid 10ft with a proper 13-second period and a massive energy reading of 3001. This is a lot of water for Lake Ferry, and the data says it's likely going to be too big and unruly for this break. This is one for the experts only, and even then, you'd be charging hard.

Sunday and Monday mornings look like the real standouts of this first week. We've got excellent conditions for experienced surfers. Sunday morning has a clean 8ft SSW swell with a 15-second period, a huge energy of 2264, and absolutely no wind – glassy perfection. Monday morning follows up with a 7ft S swell, 12-second period, and an energy of 2213, also in glassy conditions. This is the window. The swell direction is from the SSW/S which is right in line with the optimum for this spot. Get out there, but know that 2m+ at a sandbar is no joke.

After that, the middle of the week (Tue-Wed) looks to get messy with strong winds and a drop in size, so the quality will fall away.

The Second Week: Big, But Battered

The second week is less promising. There's a massive pulse of energy mid-week that's just too much. Thursday afternoon is looking at a huge 16ft SSW swell with an energy of 7478, but a strong cross-off wind and the sheer size will make it unmanageable for most and a full-on mission for anyone else. Too big, too dangerous. The rest of the week is a mix of poor surf quality brought on by onshore winds and lumpy conditions. There's a small window on Friday morning with 8ft SSW swell and 11-second period and glassy wind, which could be clean, but the direction and period feel a bit less ideal than the previous week's standouts.

The Call:

The best surf on offer is Sunday, September 13th morning and Monday, September 14th morning. The bigger, cleaner pulses of SSW groundswell with light winds are the clear winners. The 10ft Saturday afternoon and the 16ft Thursday afternoon are expert-only, and likely closing out. It's a promising first half, then a wild and messy second half. Keep your wits about you.

- Rusty

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