Oswald State Park/Short Sands Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, Rusty here. Let’s talk about what’s cookin’ at Oswald State Park/Short Sands.

Honestly, mate, I gotta be straight with you—this next couple of weeks is looking pretty flat and grim. There’s a huge gap with no real surf on offer right from the start. We’re looking at a long stretch of small, weak, and messy conditions before anything even gets close to rideable. The first few days show nothing but poor surf and marginal calls, with combined swell energy struggling to get past a moderate 260 (only hitting 260-311 early on). That’s not enough to get excited about.

The swell does try to pick up a bit around Friday the 24th of July, but it’s a weird one. You’ve got a 1ft to 3ft NW swell with a very long period of 26 seconds. That’s a proper groundswell, but it’s tiny and the wind is cross-onshore. At a beach break, that long period makes it prone to closing out or breaking straight. Not your day.

Over the weekend of the 25th and 26th, the combined energy jumps up to 393-760 (moderate to strong), but the swell is coming from the SW at 2ft to 3ft, and you’ve got moderate to fresh winds from the south or SSW, mostly cross or cross-on. The water temp is about average for the time of year, so nothing unusual there. The conditions are just too choppy and messy for a good paddle.

Then we roll into the first week of August. The 5th of August brings a 5ft NW swell—that’s the biggest of the whole forecast—but the period is a short 8 seconds, so it’s weak and wind-affected. The wind is onshore or cross-onshore, and the combined energy is 442-485 (moderate). It’s just not clean. That 5ft is getting into the too-big-for-beginners territory, but the quality is poor, so it’s really only for the die-hard, or honestly, with the wind and chop, it looks more interesting for kite surfing than paddle surfing.

If I had to pick a true standout, there isn’t one. The best of a bad lot might be the Wednesday morning of the 22nd of July—3ft from the NW, period 8 seconds, with a light 5 km/h WNW wind and slight air. It’s marginal, but at least the wind is light and onshore. That’s the only time you’ve got a sniff of cleanish conditions. The combined energy is 260 (weak), so don’t expect much push.

After that, it’s a dry run until the 5th of August, and even then it’s a no-go. Honestly, for Oswald, a blank run like this is pretty normal for this time of year. Forecasts can change, so keep an eye on it, but right now, I’d leave the boards at home.

Rusty

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