Silver Strand Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright folks, Rusty here. Let’s be straight with you. I’ve looked over the charts for our stretch of coast, and it’s a bit of a quiet spell we’re in. We’re looking at a run of small, weak surf for the next couple of weeks. It’s not a complete flat spell, but there’s nothing here that’s going to get your heart racing. The first few days are especially tough, so don’t rush to grab your board.

The water is running about 71°F, which is much warmer than normal for this time of year. That’s a bonus if you’re just keen for a paddle, but it doesn't change the fact the waves are struggling. The swell energy starts off pretty lackluster, with values in the weak to lower-moderate range (96 at best on Sunday), and the swell direction is coming in from the SW, which isn’t lining up well with our optimum WNW for Silver Strand. The period is all over the place, but mostly short and weak. We're looking at poor surf conditions all through the early part of the week. There is some wind to deal with too, mostly onshore and cross-onshore, which will just add to the bump.

Around Friday, August 7th, we see a slight pulse from the SSW, and the energy does creep up a bit, hitting 121. But the swell height remains tiny at 1ft, and with a cross-shore breeze, it’s still messy and not worth the paddle out.

There’s a slight glimmer of hope starting Sunday, August 9th, with the energy staying in the low hundred-plus range, and the light winds, even if cross-onshore, might offer a cleaner surface. But honestly, we're still talking about knee-high dribble. The swell period does get up into the 15-second range, which is always nice to see, suggesting some longer-period groundswell energy, but there just isn't any size behind it.

The most interesting window looks to be around Friday, August 14th and into the weekend of the 15th and 16th. The combined energy gets more consistent and stronger, pushing into the 200 range (204 on Friday afternoon). The swell direction shifts slightly to the SSW, and our summary heights creep up to 2ft. This is still small, but with long-period energy (15-17 seconds) and light winds in the mornings, there might be a few cleaner, more defined lines rolling through. It’s the best the period has to offer, but that’s not saying a whole lot. This is a long-range call, so treat it as promising but not set in stone.

So, the standout, if you can call it that, is the end of the first week and into the second. The break to keep an eye on is Silver Strand (Silver Strand). It’s a sandbar that’s fairly consistent, but with these small, longer-period SW swells, it might be breaking a bit too straight. The conditions are likely to be more interesting for a kite surfer than a paddle surfer, to be honest. The swell is small, so it’s not a beginner issue, but the quality just isn’t there.

Alright, that’s the long and short of it. We’ll take what we can get, but keep your expectations low.

- Rusty

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