Morro Bay Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright folks, Rusty here. Let’s take a long, hard look at what Morro Bay has in store for us over the next couple of weeks. Gotta be straight with you – it’s a tough stretch. We’re looking at a real slow start, and for the most part, the surf is going to be a challenge to get excited about.

The first real surf recommendation doesn’t kick in until Wednesday, 7 August morning. Before that, the first few days are a write-off with tiny, weak, poor-quality surf. You’d be fighting an onshore bump for practically nothing. The wait is almost two full days of nothing worth paddling out for.

So, Friday, 7 August – we finally see a pulse of swell arrive. This is your best bet of the whole outlook, and it’s not exactly firing. We’ve got a south-southwest swell creeping up to 2 ft by the afternoon, with a long period of 19 seconds. That’s proper groundswell energy, and the combined energy hits 435 – a moderate push. The kicker here? The wind turns light and cross-onshore, which isn’t perfect, but it’s manageable. Morro Bay is fairly exposed to this southwest direction, so it’ll pick it up. The water is sitting at 60°F, which is a bit colder than normal for this time of year – about 2°F below average, so you might want the 4/3.

That long period is a double-edged sword. At a spot like Morro Bay, a beach-and-reef setup, those 19-second waves can be a bit walled and straight. You’ll get clean lines, but the set waves will be fat. Still, it’s the best quality window we’ve got.

From Saturday 8 August through to Tuesday 11 August, the swell sticks around in the 2 ft to 4 ft range, but it gets a bit jumbled. The swell direction shifts more westerly and the period drops to 10 seconds on the Sunday and Monday – shorter period windswell mixed in. The wind stays light and cross-onshore, so it’s not blown out, just a bit lumpy. The combined energy stays moderate (between 340 and 568), but the wave comment flags these as marginal. It’s surfable, but you’ll be scratching for the good ones.

Monday, 10 August morning shows a cross-shore wind, which could offer a split-second of better shape, but the swell is small at 4 ft and short period.

Then we hit a slump. From Wednesday, 12 August through to Wednesday, 19 August, things get pretty grim. Most sessions are rated as poor or marginal, with swell heights between 2 ft and 3 ft and onshore winds becoming more direct. From Monday, 17 August onwards, the wind picks up to 12–18 mph from the northwest, which is straight onshore and will make a mess of things. The wave energy is moderate in the high hundreds, but it’s all junk.

The one outlier is Thursday, 20 August afternoon. A pulse of 7 ft swell arrives from the west-northwest, but it’s a miserable 7-second period and the combined energy is 823 – strong. But that period is so short it’ll be a crumbly, lumpy mess, blown out by a 12 mph onshore wind. For paddle surfing, it’s a no-go. Honestly, that setup looks far more interesting for kite surfing than a traditional surf sesh.

To sum it up: Friday, 7 August afternoon is the standout. It’s the most promising, with a touch of long-period groundswell and light winds. Everything else is a grind or a write-off. For a spot that is very consistent, it tends not to stay this flat and messy for long, so don’t lose hope. But for the next two weeks, we’re mostly waiting.

Rusty.

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