Otter Rock Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright folks, Rusty here. Let’s have a look at what Otter Rock has cookin’ over the next couple of weeks.

Right off the bat, it’s a bit of a slow start. The first real window to even think about paddling out is Sunday the 30th, but honestly, it’s nothing to write home about. That swell is coming in at only 3ft, and while the period is a very long 16 seconds from the SW, that wind is a cross-onshore. It’s going to be choppy and messy. The combined energy is moderate (499), but it’s a poor surf set-up.

We roll into Monday the 31st and Tuesday, and it’s more of the same – small, crummy waves in the 2ft to 4ft range, with onshore or cross-shore winds keeping things bumpy. You aren’t missing much.

Now, things get a bit interesting toward the end of the first week. We get a solid shot of energy arriving Wednesday the 2nd of September, but it comes with a catch. The swell jumps up to 5ft in the morning and then absolutely explodes to 13ft in the afternoon. That’s huge, but the wind is howling onshore (18-21 mph), making it a complete washing machine. The energy reading on that 13ft wave is massive (2484), but for surfing, forget it. That is kite-surf territory, not paddle-surf territory.

The true standout, and I mean the one you want to circle on the calendar, is Friday the 4th of September. Thursday the 3rd has a decent 7ft to 8ft groundswell from the WNW, but there’s still risk of t-storms hanging around. By Friday morning, the skies clear, and the wind drops to glass. Absolutely dead flat water. You get a solid 6ft of groundswell from the WNW, a nice moderate energy reading of 843, and the wind is glassy. This is the best bet for the whole run. It’s clean, it’s got push, and the break is as good as it gets.

After that, Saturday the 5th morning still looks glassy with a smaller 4ft swell, perfect for a quieter paddle. But then it drops off again into the second week. There are some interesting pulses in the second week, especially Thursday the 10th of September, where we see a 10ft swell from the WNW with glassy winds, but that’s expert-only size, and it's a longer call out so treat it as a promising blip rather than a sure thing. The rest of that second week is a mix of cleanish mornings and bumpy afternoons, with the decent swells holding around 6ft to 8ft but often spoiled by cross-shore winds.

For the beginner, keep it to the glassy days when the swell is under 5ft, like the 5th of September. When it’s over 8ft like the 10th, that’s expert only.

So in short: the first few days are a write-off. The clear winner is Friday morning, September 4th, with that cookie-cutter 6ft WNW groundswell and glass. Otter Rock is a fairly consistent spot, so this poor start won’t last forever.

Stay stoked,
Rusty.

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