The Cutting Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, this is Rusty, and I’m looking at the outlook for The Cutting. We’ve got a solid run of southwest groundswell on the cards, but it’s a tale of two extremes – either too big for most of us, or just right for the experienced crew. The water temp is sitting around 59°F, which is pretty normal for this time of year, so no surprises there.

The first real action kicks off Wednesday morning, July 8th. We’re looking at a 10ft SW swell, with a very long 18 second period. That’s a serious amount of energy coming in, but the word is it’s probably going to be too big for this break. If you’re an expert and you’ve got the quiver, it could be a wild one with clean conditions from a light NNE cross-off. Don’t get too excited about the glassy afternoon, though – it's still a 10ft beast.

Thursday and Friday, the 9th and 10th, are where the experienced surfers should be circling. The swell drops to a much more manageable 7ft, still from the SW with a nice, long period of 15 seconds. This is excellent, clean surf. Thursday morning has a light offshore NNE wind, and Friday morning offers clean conditions with a gentle offshore N wind. The wave energy is still moderate. This is the window for the advanced crew to get some quality waves. The swell direction is spot on for The Cutting being exposed to the south.

Saturday the 11th gets messy. The morning has a strong 25 mph N offshore that will make it clean but very hard to paddle into with a 5ft swell. The afternoon sees a jump in size to 11ft from the WSW with a shorter 10 second period and onshore winds. It's looking like a write-off.

Things take a turn for the big and wild from Sunday the 12th through the middle of the following week. We’re seeing massive swell – 16ft, 20ft, even 21ft – with energy readings going through the roof. This is strong to very strong energy. The wind is howling from the west and southwest, creating nasty cross-shore and onshore conditions. This is not a paddle-out situation for anyone. If you’ve got a kite, this setup might be more your style than a surfboard.

After that big blow, things settle down nicely on Friday the 17th. The swell drops back to a clean 7ft SW groundswell with a 15 second period. The wind is a light WNW cross-off, and we’ve got an "excellent" call for experienced surfers. This is your second standout window.

Saturday the 18th continues the trend with 8ft SW swell and clean cross-off winds. Still a great option for the experienced surfer.

Into the final stretch, we’ve got wind and size issues again. Sunday the 19th has a 19 mph offshore that flattens the 10ft swell, and the week after looks marginal at best until Wednesday the 22nd, when another massive 18ft SW swell shows up, but with cross-onshore wind. And then Thursday the 23rd might clean up with a 13ft SW swell and gentle offshore winds, but that's a long way off and uncertain.

So to sum it up: the standout windows are Thursday 9th and Friday 10th for the experienced crew in the 7ft range, and then Friday 17th and Saturday 18th when it drops back to a similar size after the big swell passes. Don't bother paddling out when it's over 10ft and blown out.

Rusty.

Read more