Nahant Beach Surf Forecast and Surf Report

G’day, it’s Rusty.

Honestly, the next couple of weeks are looking pretty flat and frustrating around here. We’ve got a long stretch of small, weak, and mostly messy surf, so you might be better off doing a few maintenance chores on your board or checking the tide charts for a future trip.

The first real highlight doesn’t even show up until Monday the 31st of August. Before that, from now through the 30th, it’s a desert. We’re talking days of ankle-biters, mostly under 2ft, with a lot of onshore and cross-onshore junk. The energy readings are pitiful – mostly in the teens, twenties, and thirties – like 16, 19, 21, and so on. There’s a brief moment on Wednesday the 19th with some clean, glassy conditions in the afternoon, but the swell is still a feeble 2ft from the ESE with a short 7-second period. It’s just not worth paddling out for. Nothing is breaking with any sort of push, and the beach setup just can't do anything with this lack of energy.

Around the 26th, we see a spike in period – hitting 15 seconds – but the swell height stays a pathetic 0.9ft. That’s all energy and no height; it’ll mean a lot of water moving around but nothing surfable. The wind is also up, so it’d look more interesting for kite surfing than paddle surfing.

Then, finally, on the morning of Monday the 31st of August, there’s a bit of a pulse. The swell jumps up to 5ft from the ENE, with a 6-second period. The energy reading jumps to 193, which is moderate, but that short period is going to make it walled-up and messy. The morning wind is light from the SSW, which is cross-offshore, so it might be clean early. It’s still not great, but it's the best we've seen. It gets a bit bigger in the afternoon to 6ft, but the wind swings onshore and it gets messy. Tuesday the 1st of September actually looks better, even if the swell drops. You get 4ft from the NE in the morning and light glassy SW winds – that combo could make Nahant Beach (Nahant) actually semi-fun. It’s still a short-period swell, but clean.

So, the standalone pick is the morning of Tuesday, September 1st. It won’t be epic, but with 4ft of NE swell and glassy conditions, it will be the most user-friendly and clean the surf will be all period. As for the water temp, it’s about average for this time of year, so a normal summer wetsuit should be fine.

The longer-range stuff for the second week is promising but less certain. The Monday the 31st pulse is a sign of life, but that short period is a major letdown.

Keep your expectations low and your eyes on the forecast for that first Tuesday of September.

Rusty.

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