Taft (Siltetz River) Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright folks, it’s Rusty here. Let’s be straight with you—this 16-day window for Taft (Siltetz River) is a tough one. The river mouth setup needs a specific mix of swell, wind, and tide, and for most of the forecast, we just aren’t getting it. The overall pattern is one of persistent cross or cross-onshore winds and a lot of weak, messy swell. There’s a bit of a tease in the second week, but don’t get your hopes up too high yet.

Right now, through Monday the 13th and Tuesday the 14th of July, it’s a total write-off. We’re looking at tiny, choppy waves with cross-onshore winds—nothing worth paddling out for. The combined energy is weak, in the 200-300 range, and the swell is all over the place. Wednesday the 15th and Thursday the 16th are a little bigger, with chest-high swell around 4 ft to 6 ft, but the wind is still cross-onshore and the period is short (8-10 seconds), so it’s just lumpy, poor-quality surf. The energy picks up a bit (416 to 702), but it’s not doing us any favours.

Friday the 17th through Sunday the 19th sees a shift to a longer-period groundswell (16-17 seconds) from the WNW, but the wave heights drop to a weak knee-to-waist high 3 ft. The energy is moderate (up to 925), but the wind stays cross-onshore, so the surface is still a mess. That longer period makes the waves more powerful, but at this break, it can also mean the swell wraps in a bit too straight for the river mouth, so it’s a real gamble. Saturday the 18th afternoon sees a brief window of offshore wind, which is a major positive, but the swell is still only 3 ft, and the tide and flow will be the real deciding factors. It’s a marginal call, but if you’re desperate, that’s the only time in the first week that might be worth a look.

The second week, from Monday the 21st of July onwards, we get a spike in size. Tuesday the 21st morning sees chest-to-head-high 6 ft swell, but it’s short-period (7 seconds) and cross-shore wind, so it’s a messy, bumpy mess. Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday the 22nd morning, the swell jumps to 7 ft, and the wind is cross-shore, but the wave comment says it’s too big for the break. That’s a real kicker. For a river mouth, anything over 5 ft starts to get tricky for beginners, and at 7 ft, it’s genuinely only for experts who know the channel and the current. The period is still short (7-9 seconds), so it’s not a clean, powerful groundswell; it’s a lot of heavy, crumbly closeouts. The energy is strong, in the 776-899 range.

The real standout, if you can call it that, is Thursday the 23rd of July. The morning shows 7 ft swell from the NW with a period of 9 seconds, and the wind is cross-onshore, but the wave comment says “wind and tide favorable, but the swell is predicted to be too big for this break.” That’s the story of the whole window. The energy is very strong (800), but it’s just too much water moving around for this river mouth to handle cleanly. It’s a big, powerful, but unruly ocean.

For the rest of the period, into late July, the swell drops back to 1 ft to 6 ft, but the wind is consistently cross-onshore, so it’s poor to marginal at best. The energy bottoms out in the weak range again. Honestly, the setup here looks more interesting for kite surfing than paddle surfing for most of this forecast, given the consistent cross-shore wind and the lumpy conditions.

Hang in there. The forecasts can change, and with a fairly consistent break like this, it rarely stays poor for long.

Rusty.

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