The Washout Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, let’s get real about the coming weeks. To be honest with you, looking at the whole 16-day window, we’ve got a pretty grim stretch ahead. The Washout is the only spot in the game here, and she’s just not delivering. The whole outlook is a big gap of nothing special until we get to the very end.

Right now, for the first week and a half, it’s mostly just a write-off. The swell is tiny, hardly breaking with heights between 0.7 ft and 1.0 ft, and the wind is mostly cross or cross-onshore, making it choppy and messy. The water temp is sitting at 84°F which is a touch warmer than normal for this time of year, but that’s the only good news. The combined swell energy is weak, barely scratching into double digits on a good day, like 9 (9) or 10 (10). It’s flat, it’s poor, and there’s nothing to get excited about. We start seeing a bit of a lift around the 18th and 19th of July, but even then, the swell direction is straight from the South with a short, weak period of 4 to 7 seconds. The combined energy bumps up to 107 (107) and 104 (104) on the 19th, but it’s still all cross and cross-onshore winds, so it’s a choppy, ugly mess. Not worth paddling out. This goes on and on, day after day with the same poor surf conditions.

Around the 24th of July, we get a few mornings with a light cross-offshore breeze, which is clean, but the swell is still tiny at 1 ft. It’s a long period of waiting. The real glimmer, and I mean the only true standout, comes much later. On the 28th of July, Tuesday morning, we finally see something that’s surfable. The swell is still small at 2 ft from the Southeast, but the period bumps up to 7 seconds, and the combined energy hits 65 (65). More importantly, the wind is cross-offshore from the WSW, 6 mph, which means clean conditions. It’s not a classic, but compared to the garbage we’ve been looking at, this is the best on offer for the whole 16 days. The afternoon of the 28th sees a spike in energy to 138 (138) but the wind swings cross-on and it gets choppy again. The 29th morning is clean again but the swell drops to 1 ft.

So, plain and simple: for the next 12 days, it’s mostly a blank run. The Washout is a very consistent spot, but it’s just not working for us. The only real window to even think about a surf is the morning of the 28th of July. It’s clean, small, and surfable, but it’s for the absolute beginners or those who just want to wet a line. There’s no big swell, no real power, and definitely no standouts that will get your heart racing. The forecast for the second week is a bit more promising with these clean pockets, but the swell is still weak. It’s a waiting game, but forecasts can change, and it tends not to stay this poor for long.

That’s the long and short of it. A long wait for a very ordinary little window.

Rusty

Read more