Long Beach Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright folks, let’s get straight into it. I’ve been staring at the charts for Long Beach, and I’ll be honest with you, it’s a grim stretch for the most part.

The immediate outlook is a write-off. From Sunday the 16th through the 23rd, it’s the same story on repeat: that persistent east-northeast wind is blowing straight into the exposed shore, keeping things lumpy, chopped-up and cross-onshore. Yeah, there’s a bit of swell in the water to start, right around 6 to 7 feet, but the energy is weak—nothing inspiring. The period’s only 8 seconds, which is just windswell junk. For the first week, we've got a real gap of nothing good to grab. The wave energy never even gets near 560, it’s mostly in that 200-500 range. That's just poor. The water’s about average for this time of year, so no surprises there, but the wind is just killing it. If you're a kiter, the conditions on Monday the 17th with those thrashing 19 mph east winds and 5ft of lumpy mess might be more your game than a paddle.

Then, we finally get a little spark. On Monday the 24th, the wind looks like it may ease a bit in the afternoon, coming more cross-shore than onshore. That frees up the potential of Long Beach (Laguna). The combined energy jumps right up to 1883, which is a solid, strong pulse of energy. Swell height is supposed to be around 8ft from the ENE, but there's a catch. The period jumps to 13 seconds. That’s a proper groundswell, which is great for shape and power, but this spot, exposed and straight as it is, could get a bit walled-off. It's a marginal call at best, given the tide and that leftover cross-chop. The rest of the week, from Tuesday the 25th onwards, it's back to same old, same old. The winds stay up, and the swell drops back down to waist-high dross with short periods and weak energy. There’s a blip on Sunday the 30th where the swell bumps to 5ft, but the period tanks to 6 seconds, which is just a choppy mess.

Beyond that, into the last day on Monday the 31st, we see the swell is up to 6ft, but that period is still only 7 seconds. The wind, at 16 mph, is still cross-on. It's just messy, low-quality, onshore slop.

So don’t get too excited about this 16-day stretch. The only real standout is that Monday the 24th window, and even that promises to be tricky. It’s not a classic, but it’s the only day with real grunt and a chance of a clean wave if the wind plays ball. Keep your expectations low, and maybe have the kite gear handy, just in case.

Rusty

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