Surf City Pier Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Right folks, Rusty here. Let’s have a proper look at what Surf City Pier has got cookin’ for the next couple of weeks. Gotta be straight with you – it’s a slow start. Real slow. We’re staring at a long, quiet spell before anything worth paddling out for shows up.

First up, we’re looking at Monday the 24th through to the end of August. It’s a tough stretch. The water temp is sitting at a warm 84°, which is about 2° warmer than normal for this time of year, so it’s a bit toasty. But the waves? They’re tiny. We’re talkin’ knee-high dribble at best, with weak energy readings mostly in the 30s and 40s (weak). The wind is all over the shop – cross, onshore, a bit of chop – and honestly, the vibe is “poor surf conditions.” There’s a couple of brief, glassy moments on Thursday afternoon the 27th (3 ft, S swell, 5 sec period) and Saturday morning the 29th (1 ft, ESE swell, 8 sec period), where it’s labelled as “surfable but very ordinary.” That’s about as good as it gets in this first week. It’s a real flat spell.

That quiet run carries on through the first few days of September too. There’s a glimmer on Tuesday the 1st with a long-period groundswell creeping in – 15-second period from the SE, giving us a moderate energy reading of 159, but still only 2 ft. The wind is glassy, so it’ll be clean as a whistle, but there’s just no power behind it. Same story on Wednesday the 2nd: 2 ft, 12-second period, clean but tiny.

Now, pay attention, because this is where it gets interesting. Thursday the 3rd of September is the standout in the whole forecast. We’ve got a solid 3 ft swell from the SE, bumping up to a 14-second period (proper groundswell), and the combined energy jumps to a strong 280. That’s a proper pulse of energy. The wind is offshore – clean from the WNW in the morning, and also offshore from the WNW in the afternoon. This is the session to aim for. The waves will be long-period, groundswell lines, so they’ll wrap in nicely at this sandbar setup. It’s a little bigger than the rest of the junk, but still very manageable. No mention of crowds in the guidance for this break, so it might be a quiet one if you’re lucky.

After that, Friday the 4th hangs in there with a 3 ft, 13-second ESE swell and moderate energy (227), but the wind picks up to a moderate breeze from the N/NW. It’s still cross-offshore, so clean, but the energy drops off through the day. Saturday the 5th sees a weird mix: a short-period, 4 ft ENE swell (only 6 seconds) in the afternoon with moderate energy (165). That short period means it’ll be a bit lumpy and weak for its height, probably messy at the beach break. Not one to get too excited about.

Then we slide back into small, choppy junk from the 6th to the 8th, with onshore winds and weak energy readings. The run peters out.

So, the one true standout is Thursday the 3rd of September. That clean, offshore wind with a touch of groundswell energy is your best bet by a country mile. Next best would probably be the glassy, long-period dawn patrols on the 1st and 2nd, but you’ll be chasing small waves.

Don't hold your breath for the rest of it. We’ve had longer flat spells here, but this one’s a doozy. Forecasts change though, so keep an eye on it.

Rusty.

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