Rock Island Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, this is Rusty. Let's be straight with you – the next couple of weeks at Rock Island are looking pretty grim. There’s a big gap of nothing worth paddling out for right from the start. We're talking about a full ten days of flat, messy, or just plain poor conditions. The first time we see anything with a pulse is not until Monday, August 3rd, and even then it's only a flicker of hope.

For the first ten days, the swell is tiny, mostly under 2ft, and coming from the south or southeast. The wind is all over the shop, but often cross-on or onshore, which is just chopping up whatever ankle-biters are there. We get a few brief moments of glassy or offshore conditions, like Thursday morning, July 30th, but with a 0.7ft swell from the SSW, it's barely a ripple. The combined energy is weak, sitting in the low double digits (13 to 37) for most of that time. Nothing to get excited about.

Then, on Monday, August 3rd, things change. We finally see a pulse of energy. The swell bumps up to 3ft from the ESE, with a very long period of 18 seconds. The combined energy jumps to 445, which is a solid moderate push. The water temperature is 81°F, which is a touch warmer than normal for this time of year. However, the wind is onshore on the Monday morning, and it gets stronger in the afternoon. It's a tease. The morning of August 3rd is the only real standout, but it's described as "marginal" and the wind is wrong. It's a long-period groundswell, which for a reef break like Rock Island could actually be decent, but the onshore wind will ruin it. This one is for the experts only, as the swell is close to 3ft, but the period makes it powerful.

After that, it drops off again. The 4th has similar energy (320-294) but the wind is still onshore. By the 5th, the energy is gone. The 7th of August has a weird 3ft pulse from the SSW with a tiny 4-second period and glassy conditions, but it's a short-period windswell that won't have any shape. The afternoon sees the swell jump to 6ft from the SSW with a 6-second period, creating a combined energy of 243, but it's onshore and messy. That's a lot of white water and not much else.

Honestly, there's nothing here that's a "go" for a surf. The best bet is the morning of August 3rd, but it comes with a big caveat about the wind. If you're a patient local who knows the reef, you might find one or two, but for anyone else, it's a stay-at-home kind of fortnight.

Rusty.

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