Nantasket Beach Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright folks, Rusty here. Let's have a good, hard look at what’s on the table for Nantasket Beach over the next couple of weeks.

Right off the bat, I’ve got to be straight with you: the surf outlook is pretty bleak. This stretch is shaping up to be a long, quiet run with hardly anything worth paddling out for. The entire 16-day window is looking at tiny, weak surf with poor conditions hanging around for the vast majority of it.

We start off on Thursday, the 20th of August with some tiny 1ft waves out of the ESE at a short 8 seconds. The water temp is sitting at 67°, which is about average for the time of year, but that’s the only thing that’s normal. The combined swell energy is a measly 12, and with glassy conditions first thing, it’s the kind of flat, mushy day you’d use to practice your pop-ups if you’re desperate.

The weekend is rough. Friday the 21st and Saturday the 22nd serve up a bit more swell, maybe hitting 3ft, but the period drops right off to a whimpy 4 to 6 seconds. The wind is onshore or cross-onshore, making for choppy, messy surf. Combined energy gets up to a weak 61, but it’s all junk.

From Sunday the 23rd right through to the end of the month, it’s the same sad story. Wave heights mostly hover around 0.7ft to 2ft. While we do get some clean, offshore winds from the WSW on Monday the 24th and Tuesday the 25th, the swell is just too tiny and weak to do anything with. The combined energy drops into the single digits and teens. The long-period (11-12 sec) groundswell we see mid-week is utterly wasted on the flat conditions. There is one morning of glass on Monday the 31st of August, but that’s for 1ft slop.

Into the first week of September, the pattern doesn't change. A little bump on the 2nd of September pushes 3ft from the NE, but it’s a short 5-second period with combined energy around 49-50. That’s a weak, windswell with onshore flow in the afternoon. After that, it fades right back to tiny 1ft to 2ft surf with unhelpful onshore winds.

Honestly, there isn’t a single standout day here. No real pick of the bunch. For a spot like Nantasket that needs a decent push of NE groundswell and clean conditions, we’re getting neither. If this was a bit bigger and cleaner, the beach setup would probably be more interesting for the kites than the paddle crew.

Keep the board in the car and check back with me later, but for now, there’s just nothing on the menu worth chasing.

Rusty.

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