San Jose Rivermouth Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Right then, let's have a look at what's brewin' for the next couple of weeks.

Gotta be straight with you, it's been a bit of a flat spell to kick things off. The first few days are a write-off, with poor onshore conditions and weak, messy lines. But hold on, there's some serious energy on the horizon. We're looking at a classic case of waitin' it out.

The San Jose Rivermouth (Santa Cruz) has been pretty average, with a lot of cross and cross-onshore wind messin' up the weak swell. The combined energy was mostly in the moderate range (values between 393 and 794), but the southerly wind just kills any chance of a decent wave. We're talking lumpy, choppy, no-good-to-anyone sorta surf. The water temp is pretty average for this time of year – nothing unusual there.

Now, come Tuesday the 25th, there's a flicker of hope. The afternoon session sees the wind swing to a light cross-offshore from the WSW, and we get a clean 4ft swell from the SW with an 11-second period. The combined energy hits 745 – moderate, but with that clean wind, it's gonna be the best lookin' wave we've had in a while. This is the standout of the first week. Get on it.

We then hit another patch of dodgey conditions through Wednesday and Thursday, with the wind gettin' messy again. But keep your eye on Friday the 28th. The morning sees a 4ft SSW swell, but it's the afternoon that really gets the pulse goin'. We've got a 5ft swell from the SSW with a long 18-second period and a light cross-shore wind. The combined energy jumps right up to 1510 – that's some solid, moderate-to-strong energy. The 18-second period makes it a proper groundswell, so it'll have more punch and shape, but it might run a bit straight at the beach. For a river-mouth break though, it should focus up nicely. Crowds are "often" here, and with this being the best pulse in a while, you can bet it'll be busy.

The Saturday the 29th holds similar potential, with 5ft SSW swell and light winds, but the energy drops a little. Still, both those Friday and Saturday afternoon sessions are your best bets.

The forecast goes a bit wild into the second week. By Thursday the 3rd of September, we're talkin' 12ft of SSW swell, but the break itself is sayin' it's too big for this spot. That's a power hour for experts only, if you're game. And then Friday the 4th of September gets absolutely nuked with a 16ft SW swell and a combined energy of over 12,000 – that's some huge, powerful energy. Again, it's labelled as too big for this break. That level of swell is for one of the bigger reef line-ups, not a rivermouth. If you're a pro, maybe, but for the rest of us, it's a time to watch from the cliff.

So, bottom line: the start is quiet, but Tuesday arvo the 25th is the first real glimmer, and Friday arvo the 28th through Saturday the 29th look like the real deal for solid, clean waves. After that, it gets a bit apocalyptic for the San Jose Rivermouth.

Stay stoked.
Rusty.

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