Oceanside Harbor Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, Rusty here, looking at the next couple of weeks for Southern California. Honestly, we're in a bit of a slump right now. The first couple of days are looking pretty flat and messy. Things start to look a little more promising towards the end of the month and into early September, but you'll have to be patient.

Let's start with what we’ve got. Right now, through the morning of Thursday the 20th, we're looking at weak 3ft swell from the SSW with a period of 14 seconds. That's a weak energy reading (323) and combined with a light onshore breeze, it's just poor surf. Don't even bother.

Friday the 21st is more of the same—small and weak. The swell drops even further into the weekend. Saturday the 22nd and Sunday the 23rd have swell heights barely hitting 2ft to 2ft, and the wind is going cross-onshore. It's a wasteland. The combined energy is still weak, with readings in the low hundreds.

The start of the following week, Monday the 24th and Tuesday the 25th, is still poor. Swell stays tiny, around 2ft, with a moderate cross-onshore breeze picking up on Tuesday. The water temp at Oceanside Harbor (Oceanside) is about average for this time of year, so nothing weird there.

Now, there’s a glimmer of hope. By the morning of Friday the 28th of August, we see the swell start to pick up a little, hitting 3ft from the SSW. The period jumps to a nice 19 seconds, which is a really long-period groundswell. The combined energy climbs to a moderate 734, and we've got light offshore winds. This is the first time in the whole run that the stars align. It’s still small, but that long period should give it some shape and push. This is the standout session of the entire forecast. It might be a bit straight for the beach breaks with that long period, but at the jetty, it could line up nicely.

Saturday the 29th keeps that promise going. The swell builds a touch more to 3ft in the morning, with that same long-period SSW energy (773) and light offshore wind. The afternoon pushes the swell up to 4ft with a 16-second period (951 energy), though the wind goes a little cross-onshore. Still, Saturday morning is another strong contender.

Things look okay on Sunday the 30th with 4ft SSW swell, but after that, the energy drops off again for the final days of the forecast, through the 1st to the 4th of September, with poor conditions and lighter winds becoming cross-onshore again.

So, to sum it up: the first ten days are a write-off. The real window is Friday the 28th morning and Saturday the 29th morning. That's your best shot at a clean wave with some real push. Get on it if you can.

Rusty

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