Pelican Watch Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, let’s get into it.

To be straight with you, the next week or so is looking pretty grim. We’ve got a long stretch of small, weak surf and less-than-ideal conditions. The energy in the water is just... flat. For the first several days, we’re looking at a lot of cross-shore wind and messy, weak waves. There’s a small window on the morning of Wednesday the 5th where things clean up a touch. The swell is tiny, around 3ft from the SSE, and the wind goes cross-offshore. It’s surfable, but it’s pretty ordinary. You’d be scratching for anything rideable. The energy is weak, reading 65 on the combined scale. It’s not worth getting excited about.

The rest of that first week is more of the same. Small, weak swells, mostly around that 2ft to 3ft mark, with cross and cross-offshore winds. The energy stays weak, dropping into double digits. There’s a slight kick in energy on Saturday the 8th, hitting 108, but the swell is still just under 3ft and the wind stays cross-offshore. It’s clean-ish, but there’s just no power. This is a real test of patience.

As we move into the second week, the swell drops right off. We’re talking 0.5ft to 2ft. It’s basically flat. The wind does go more offshore for a stretch, especially Wednesday morning the 12th and Thursday morning the 13th, but with that little surf, it doesn't matter. You’d be floating around doing nothing. This is a long gap with no real surf on offer.

Now, there is a glimmer of something on the horizon. Around Saturday the 15th of August, there’s a pulse of new swell from the SSW, pushing the waves up to around 6ft. That’s the biggest we see in the whole 16-day window. The energy reading jumps way up to 338, which is the only time we see any moderate energy. It’s still a week and a half away, so it’s a long-range call, but it’s promising. The issue is the wind. It’s forecast to be cross-onshore from the NNE for that morning, which will chop it up. The period is a short 7 seconds, so it’s going to be a bit crumbly. It might be more interesting for the kite surfers than us paddle surfers, to be honest. Saturday afternoon actually looks cleaner with light, glassy conditions, but the swell drops right back down to around 2ft. That’s a hard pass.

The water temp is sitting at 83°, which is about average for this time of year, so no surprises there.

Honestly, this is a bleak outlook. The only real standout is that pulse on the 15th, but it’s a long way out and the forecast could change. For the here and now, you might be better off finding something else to do.

Rusty.

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