Moss Landing Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, this is Rusty, and I’ve been staring at the charts for Moss Landing. Gotta be straight with you – it’s a rough stretch ahead. The whole 16-day window is looking pretty grim for a proper paddle session. We’re stuck in a pattern of cross-onshore winds and a swell that just isn’t lining up right.

The water is sitting at 60°, which is a touch warmer than normal for this time of year, but that’s about the only good news.

Let’s run through it. From Thursday the 23rd right through to the end of July, it’s a write-off. The swell is small, the period is all over the place, and the wind is always coming from the west or southwest, putting a bump on everything. The combined wave energy is weak to moderate, hitting just 45 on Thursday morning, and only occasionally pushing into the low hundreds. The surf is labelled as poor conditions every single session. You’re looking at small, chopped-up waves, mostly around 1 ft to 5 ft, and the wind is never clean. It’s just not worth paddling out.

The first hint of something happening – and I’m using that word loosely – comes on Friday the 31st. The morning shows a 4 ft swell from the WNW with an 8-second period, and the combined energy is up to 268. The wind is light from the west, but it’s still cross-on. The forecast calls it “marginal.” That’s the best we’ve got in weeks, but it’s still not good.

The second week doesn’t get any better. Swell heights bounce between 4 ft and 5 ft, with periods stretching out to 9 and 10 seconds. The energy ramps up significantly, with readings of 339, 345, and even 452 on the 6th of August. That’s moderate to strong energy, but every single time, the wind is cross-on. It’s a classic case of a decent swell being totally ruined by the wind. On the 4th of August, the afternoon shows a brief moment of “on” wind from the west, but the wave state is listed as “unknown” and the quality is still poor. The 5th of August morning gets a “marginal” tag again, but it’s the same story.

Honestly, for this whole period, the setup is so consistently choppy and poor that it looks more interesting for kite surfing than paddle surfing. The waves will be there, but they’ll be a mess. There is no standout slot. The best you can hope for is a light wind morning, like the 31st or the 5th, where the surface might be a little less rough, but it’s still a cross-on, gutless wave.

I hate to say it, but this is a blank run. Stash the board and wait for a proper swell with a clean offshore.

Rusty.

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