Shooting Gallery Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright folks, Rusty here with a look at what we’ve got coming down the line for Shooting Gallery. I gotta be straight with you; this stretch of the forecast is a tough one to sell.

Right from the start on Monday, July 27th, it’s messy. We’ve got a weak N swell rolling in at 5ft, but that period is a short, fat 8 seconds and the wind is howling from the north at 16 mph, putting us right in the cross-onshore zone. The combined swell energy is weak at 243, and the whole thing is just choppy and poor. That sets the tone for the entire first week and a half. Day after day it’s the same story: small, short-period swell from the north, and a persistent cross-onshore wind. The water’s at 72°, which is about average for this time of year, so no surprises there, but you won’t care about that when you’re looking at crumbly, wind-affected lines.

Honestly, the pattern doesn’t let up. We drift through the end of July and into the beginning of August with the same junk. On Saturday, August 1st, the wind eases right off to almost nothing in the morning with a faint 3ft of north swell and a combined energy reading of 185, but the wave comment still screams “poor surf conditions.” It’s just not delivering. By Sunday, August 2nd, we’re back to a weak 4ft swell with a pathetic 4-second period and a combined energy of just 108. It’s a long, blank stretch of nothing to get excited about.

The swell starts to push up a bit in the second week—by the 9th and 10th of August we’re looking at 6ft to 7ft of north swell, and the combined energy climbs to strong levels (422 and 521). That sounds promising, but the catch is the wind. It’s a fresh breeze, 19 to 22 mph from the NNE, and it’s cross-onshore the whole time. That size with that wind just makes for lumpy, ugly, blown-out conditions. The period stays at a mediocre 8 seconds, so there’s no real quality to it.

The best of a bad bunch, if I had to pick *something*, would be a couple of the deeper spots. The swell direction is north, but that optimum here is NNW, so we’re close but not dead-on. For a brief window on Saturday, August 8th morning, we have 5ft of north swell with a period stretching to 9 seconds and combined energy of 378. The wind is still cross-on from the NNE at 16 mph, but it’s the cleanest the moderate-sized waves will be all period. It’s not great, but it’s the least bad.

Other than that, this is a long run of poor surf. If you’re desperate, you might paddle out, but the setup here looks more interesting for kite surfing than paddle surfing on most of these days. The crowds at Shooting Gallery can be *sometimes* an issue, but with waves this average, you’ll probably have it to yourself. I’d be looking at the next weather system to stir things up because this run is a dud.

Rusty.

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