North Torrey Pines Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright folks, it’s Rusty here, and I gotta be straight with you – this 16-day window for North Torrey Pines is a tough one to write about. Honestly, it’s pretty grim. We’ve got a solid 16 days of forecast on the table, but you’re looking at a real dry spell for anything worth paddling out for.

The first solid week, from Friday the 7th of August right through to Thursday the 13th, is a total write-off. The swell is tiny, mostly around 2ft to 3ft, and while it’s coming from the SSW with some decent long-period groundswell – we’re talking 13 to 20 seconds – the conditions just aren’t coming together. The word from the forecasts is consistently “poor surf conditions.” The wind is mostly a gentle breeze, often offshore from the W or WNW, but it’s not enough to save it. The combined wave energy is weak to moderate, hitting values like 359 and 442, but it’s just not producing any quality. You’d be wasting your time.

Now, things do get a little more interesting heading into the second week. Starting Friday morning the 14th of August, we see a bit of a pulse. The swell picks up to 2ft to 4ft, and the combined energy jumps into the moderate-to-strong range, with readings like 581 on Friday morning and a peak of 758 on Saturday afternoon the 15th. The forecasts upgrade from “poor” to “marginal,” which is sadly the best we’ve got. The wind stays offshore from the WNW or W, which is a big positive for clean faces, but the swell direction is still SSW, and the period is still long, between 14 and 18 seconds.

The best of a bad bunch looks like the Saturday afternoon of the 15th of August. We’ve got a 4ft SSW swell, a 16-second period, and a solid 758 combined wave energy reading. The wind is a gentle breeze from the WNW, blowing offshore. That’s about as clean as it’s going to get. But here’s the caveat: with that long period, the waves will be very straight at this beach break, making for a bit of a closeout situation. It’s really only for the patient surfer who knows the sandbars. And don’t forget, North Torrey Pines is a beginner spot, so anything over 5ft is getting big for the learners, and while this is under that, the quality is just not there.

There’s a brief uptick again on Sunday the 16th, with a 4ft SW swell and 15-second period, but again, it’s only “marginal.” After that, from Monday the 17th onwards, the energy drops back into the 200-500 range, and we’re back to “poor surf conditions” for the rest of the run. The water temperature is a very unusual 76°F – that’s 8° warmer than normal for this time of year, so you’ll be warm, but that’s about the only positive.

Look, between the 7th and the 13th, there’s a solid 6-day gap of zilch. Then we get a few days of “marginal” action from the 14th to the 16th, before it fades again. I can’t recommend a single standout session here. If you are desperate for a paddle, that Saturday the 15th is your only real shot, but keep your expectations on the floor. It’s all just a bit of a flat, frustrating spell for North Torrey.

Rusty.

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