Salmon Creek Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, I’ve been watchin’ the charts for you over the next 16 days here at Salmon Creek. Let’s get real blunt: it’s gonna be a grind, but there’s a tiny light at the finish line.

First up, the water is hangin’ around 60°F right now, about a degree and a half warmer than usual for this time of year, so it’s a little on the mild side – not bad.

The next week and a half is a tough slog. From Monday the 17th all the way through to the morning of Saturday the 29th, it’s basically a write-off. There’s always some swell in the water with moderate wave energy – you’ll mainly see readings between 353 and 957 (moderate energy) – but the wind is a killer. It’s pouring over the bank from the west and west-northwest, almost always onshore or cross-onshore, so everything’s chopped up and gutless. A couple of mornings might look okay on paper, like Wednesday the 19th morning with a 6ft NW swell and light wind, but the period’s a short 8 seconds and the score is just marginal. Not worth paddling out for. The swell direction is coming from the northwest or west-northwest, which is cross-shore to the optimum here (WSW), so it’s never really lining up. You’ll even see a couple of afternoons where the wind hits 12-15 mph, making it completely messy.

Then, you get Saturday the 29th and Sunday the 30th – still pretty grim. The swell builds up a bit, but it’s still messy.

Now, hold on to your board. The standout, the one true glimmer in this dark period, is Monday the 31st of August in the morning. This is it. The wind switches to a light southerly breeze, 9 mph, giving us a clean *cross-offshore* flow. The swell is a small-ish 3ft but it’s coming from the SSW at 15 seconds – that’s a proper groundswell with some real push. The combined energy is 749 (moderate). That’s better shape, longer lines, and it’ll be clean. This is the only morning in the whole 16 days you should circle in red. It’s a point-break style wave there, so that long-period swell will wrap in nicely. Crowds are “sometimes” an issue here, so get in early if you can.

Unfortunately, the rest is a bust right up to September 1st. That Monday morning is your best shot; everything else around it is either too windy, too blown out, or just has too much energy wasted.

That’s the reality here, folks. A long dry spell, then one clean window. Hope the forecasts shift, but right now, that’s the score.

Rusty.

Read more