Reef Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, let me level with you – the next two weeks at Reef are looking dry as a bone. There's no surf worth paddling out for in the whole 16-day run. This break is usually fairly consistent, so a stretch like this is a bit of a bummer, but it's not unheard of. The swell just never shows up properly, and when it does, the wind ruins it.

Starting Friday 17 July: a tiny 1.0 ft WNW swell, but a 15 mph NNW cross-on wind chops it up. Saturday the 18th has a 2 ft NW swell, but again cross-on wind, period only 4 seconds – no good. Sunday and Monday are similar: around 3 ft NW swell, cross-on wind, poor conditions. The combined energy stays low, in the 60–86 range (weak). Even Tuesday 21 July morning sees a 1 ft NW swell with a 10-second period, but the wind is still cross-on at 9 mph, and energy is only 32 – not enough.

The rest of the first week is more of the same: tiny swells, cross-on wind, and poor surf. The second week doesn't get any better. By Saturday 25 July, we get a 3 ft NW swell, but the wind is a fresh cross-shore 22 mph, making it lumpy. Sunday 26 July has strong cross winds near 28 mph – that's kite-surfing weather, not paddle surfing. Then from Monday 28 July through the end of the month, the swell drops to almost nothing, with long periods of glassy conditions but zero waves. On 1 August, there's a tiny 0.3 ft long-period swell (16 seconds) from the west, but it's flat and clean – no energy to ride.

Water temperature at the start is about 68°F, which is normal for this time of year – no anomaly. But that doesn't matter with no surf. The optimum swell direction for Reef is SW, and we never see that – it's all NW to WNW, which is cross or cross-on here. The wind is almost always cross-on or cross-shore, never clean offshore. So I'm calling it a blank period. Sometimes forecasts change, and Reef can fire up quickly, but right now, I'd leave the boards in the garage. Stay tuned – maybe something shifts, but as it stands, it's a total washout.

Rusty

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