Pacific City/Cape Kiwanda Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright folks, Rusty here. Let’s have a look at what’s on offer for Pacific City/Cape Kiwanda over the next couple of weeks.

Right off the bat, I gotta be honest with you – this is a tough outlook. The surf is mostly small and the conditions are fighting us. The best-looking window is actually the first day, but even that’s a bit of a compromise.

We kick things off Monday morning, the 20th of July. We’ve got a NW swell coming in at 5ft with a 8-second period. The wind is a light cross-on from the WNW at 6 mph, which is okay but not perfect. The water is sitting at 55°, which is a solid 4° colder than normal for this time of year – so you’ll want a good thick wetsuit. The combined wave energy is moderate at 637. It’s a surfable, punchy little wave, but it’s a bit lumpy. Honestly, the best pick of the whole forecast is Wednesday morning, the 22nd of July. The swell drops to 2ft from the SW, but the period stretches out to 14 seconds, which is a nice groundswell. The key here is the wind: glassy. Dead flat, clean conditions. That 2ft will be clean and fun on a longboard. The energy is moderate at 389. It’s not big, but it’s the cleanest it’s going to get.

After that, things get messy. The rest of the first week shows a mix of onshore and cross-onshore winds with swell heights bouncing between 4ft and 5ft, but the period is short and the wind is working against us. By Saturday the 25th, we see a very long period SW groundswell (22 seconds) but it’s tiny at 2ft and the wind is cross-onshore. That’s a tease – clean and lined up, but too small to really do anything.

Then we hit a real quiet and poor stretch. From Monday the 27th of July all the way through to the end of the forecast on Tuesday the 4th of August, nearly every day is marked as poor surf conditions. The wind picks up, mostly from the NNW at 9-16 mph, creating a lot of chop and cross-chop. The swell is small, mostly 2ft to 3ft, with a few days showing a bit more size (4ft to 6ft) but with a short, windswell period of 7-8 seconds. The combined energy drops off significantly, falling to 153 by the 1st of August – that’s weak energy. It’s not looking good for paddle surfing at all. Honestly, with those conditions and the beach-and-reef setup, it’d be more interesting for the kite surfers than us.

So, to sum it up: Wednesday morning the 22nd is your cleanest, glassiest shot for a little micro-session. The first Monday morning is your biggest, most powerful wave of the period, but it’s a bit lumpy. The rest is a write-off. Don’t hold your breath for the second week.

Rusty.

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