30th Street/Ship Bottom Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, Rusty here. Let's talk about the surf. Look, I'm not gonna sugarcoat it – this 16-day window at 30th Street/Ship Bottom is a tough one to call.

Right from the start, we're looking at a real flat spell. The first few days of August are offering nothing but tiny, short-period wind swell. On Tuesday the 4th, you've got a weak 2ft to 3ft wave from the SSE, but the wind is a cross-on breeze, creating a choppy mess. The combined energy is weak (52 to 120). It's a struggle. This pattern of small, weak, and poorly shaped surf continues right through the first week. The water is sitting at 77°, which is a touch warmer than normal for this time of year, but that's about the only highlight.

We do get a stretch of clean conditions from Thursday the 6th through to the 10th, with offshore or cross-off breezes, but the waves are tiny. The swell height barely cracks 3ft on the Saturday morning (8th August), and combined energy just tickles 137 – still weak. It's a small, clean wave, but it's not going to get your heart racing. For a beginner, this might be a fun ankle-to-knee-high session, but for anyone else, it's a long paddle for not much.

The real dormant period hits after the 9th of August. From Sunday the 9th through to the 13th, we're looking at mostly 2ft to 2ft surf with periods hanging around 6 seconds. There's a morning of glassy conditions on Tuesday the 11th, but with a 2ft wave, you're just floating. The 13th of August shows a slight uptick with a 3ft wave from the NE, but the period is a pathetic 5 seconds, and it's still a poor surf call.

Then, a genuine gap. From the 14th of August, the surf drops off a cliff. The 14th, 15th, and 16th are all onshore, messy, and tiny – 0.7ft to 3ft. The combined energy plummets to single and low double digits (9-40). It's dead.

The 17th of August brings a slight change in the swell direction to the SE, and the period jumps to 9 seconds, which is more interesting. But the wave height is only 1ft. The 18th and 19th of August are similar: a short-period, weak SE swell, cleaned up by cross-off winds, but it's still barely a ripple. By the 19th, we're seeing strong winds of 18-22 mph, which will just blow the surface off.

The honest truth? There is no standout session here. The best we can hope for is a clean, small wave on the morning of Saturday the 8th (3ft from the S) or a clean but equally small wave on the 10th. It's a beach break, so the long-period swell that shows up on the 17th and 18th (9 seconds) will likely break too straight. This setup looks more interesting for a kite surfer than a paddle surfer when the wind picks up. Don't hold your breath.

Rusty.

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