Oceanside Harbor Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright folks, Rusty here. Let's have a look at what's on the table for the next couple of weeks.

It's a bit of a slow start, but we've got a window of rideable waves kicking off Tuesday morning. The overall pattern shows a moderate pulse of long-period groundswell straight away, but don't get too excited—the quality is a bit of a letdown. The water is a super unusual 4° warmer than normal for this time of year, which feels like bathwater.

The standout for the whole 16-day run is the early part of the window. Tuesday morning, July 28th, is your best bet. Oceanside Harbor will have a clean 4 ft SSW swell with a very long 17-second period, packing strong wave energy (1062). The wind is light and onshore from the SSW at 9 mph, which is a bit of a bummer, but it's light enough to keep things workable. That long period means the waves will have proper shape and power, but at a beach/jetty setup like this, those long gaps between sets can make it feel a bit stop-start. The afternoon cleans up a touch with the wind dropping to 6 mph, but the same solid energy is there. This is really the only window where the waves have any serious grunt, but the onshore wind holds it back from being epic; it's more of a "functional" surf than a glassy dream.

Wednesday through Friday sees the swell dropping. Wednesday morning is a bit choppy with a cross-onshore wind, and the swell dips to 4 ft. Thursday and Friday have similar 4 ft to 5 ft swell, but the wind stays cross-onshore, which will keep things bumpy. The energy is still moderate to strong (in the 600-800 range), but the texture is messy. This is still manageable for the advanced surfer that Oceanside Harbor is set up for, but beginners might want to sit this out—especially Friday morning when the swell hits 5 ft.

Then, from Saturday, August 1st, we hit a long, flat spell. The surf goes completely quiet, with swell dropping to 1 ft to 2 ft and poor conditions. This lull stretches all the way through to the end of the forecast on August 12th. There's a few tiny pulses of very long period swell (17-19 seconds) in the second week, but the heights are so small (1 ft to 3 ft) that even with clean onshore winds, there's just no energy to push a decent wave. The wave energy readings are all in the low hundreds, which is weak. Nothing to get excited about for the paddle surfer.

So, in short: jump on Tuesday and maybe Wednesday morning if you're keen. After that, it's a long, dry stretch of flatness. The waves might come back eventually, but not in this 16-day window.

Rusty.

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