Tennis Courts Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright folks, let’s get into it. This is Rusty.

Heads up, it’s a bit of a slow burner out there at Tennis Courts. Most of the coming days look pretty average, with a long spell of marginal conditions and not much to get excited about until we push well into the second week. The water temp is sitting right around 81°, which is pretty normal for this time of year, so no weirdness there.

Right now on Sunday the 16th, it’s a write-off. We’ve got a strong 10ft swell from the ENE but a stormy ESE cross-onshore wind at 25 mph is making a complete mess of it. Combined swell energy is pumping hard at 2741, but with that wind it’s just not for paddling. Skip it.

Come Monday morning the 17th, we finally get some clean conditions out of a cross-offshore ENE breeze at 19 mph. Swell drops right back to 3ft, but it’s a sweet 14-second S groundswell (moderate energy of 666). The waves will be small and clean, but the period means there’s some shape there for a patient surfer on a log. It stays small and clean through Tuesday, but the swell period gets shorter and the energy drops into the 300-400 range – honestly not much to ride.

Wednesday the 19th and Thursday the 20th see the swell bottom out. Tiny 2ft to 2ft waves from the SSW with a very long period of 16-18 seconds. On Thursday, the morning glass-off with light ENE wind at 6 mph will have the surface buttery smooth. The energy is low (281), but the clarity and that long-period groundswell might offer a few clean runners for a mid-length or a single-fin if you’re patient.

We drift through the rest of that week and into the weekend of the 22nd with little change. There’s a faint pulse from the SW, but we’re talking 2ft for days. The wind stays mostly cross-off or light, so it’s clean, but the power just isn’t there. This is a stretch where you’d be lucky to find a knee-high peel.

Now, here’s where it gets interesting. We start seeing some size build around Tuesday the 25th of August. The swell pushes up to 6ft from the ENE, period at 8 seconds (moderate energy of 573-619). The wind is a solid 19 mph cross-off from the ENE. Clean, but that’s a chunky, short-period wind swell. This is beefy for a beach/reef setup like Tennis Courts, and with waves over 5ft, it’s edging out of beginner territory. The real standout, though, is Thursday the 27th of August and Friday the 28th. We’re looking at a proper 10ft to 12ft swell from the ENE, flipping to E, with a period stretching to 9-10 seconds. Combined energy jumps into the 1900 to 2400 range – that’s strong wave energy. The wind stays cross-offshore from the ENE at 19-22 mph, keeping the faces clean. This is big, powerful, expert-only stuff. And here’s the thing: with a period of 9-10 seconds, it’s not super long, so at a reef like Tennis Courts, it might hold its shape better than a pure 15-second groundswell would. The optimum direction is SSE, and we’re getting ENE/E, so it’s not perfectly aligned, but the raw size and clean wind make this the best on offer in the whole outlook. The crowd factor is listed as “sometimes,” so you might have a few others out, but it’s not going to be a zoo.

After that spike, it drops back down fast into the weekend of the 30th. Sunday the 30th sees a return to small 2ft SSW groundswell, and the wind picks back up to 19 mph cross-off from the ENE. That long-period energy is back but it’s just too small to do much with. Monday the 31st is more of the same, falling off a cliff with a tiny 2ft SSW pulse and then a short-period 4ft ENE slop in the afternoon.

Honestly, if you’re sitting on your hands for two weeks, save your energy for Thursday the 27th and Friday the 28th of August. That’s the clear standout: big, clean, expert-level surf at Tennis Courts. Everything else is small and marginal. It’s a long gap of average days, but that late-August pulse looks worth the wait.

Rusty

Read more