30th Street/Ship Bottom Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, folks, it’s your local surf reporter Rusty, and I’ve been staring at the charts for the next couple of weeks. I gotta be straight with you – for a long stretch, it’s gonna be a real struggle to find anything worth paddling out for.

We’re looking at 30th Street/Ship Bottom, and the first real sign of life doesn’t even show up until Monday, the 3rd of August. That’s a solid week and a half of pretty much flat, messy, or blown-out water. From Friday the 24th all the way through to Sunday the 2nd of August, the waves are just too small or the wind is junk. You’ll see a lot of onshore wind and weak, short-period swell with combined energy barely cracking 100 (like 32 to 96). It’s a grim run.

Finally, on the morning of Monday the 3rd of August, we get a little pulse. The swell bumps up to about 2 ft from the SSE, with a period of 8 seconds. The combined energy is still weak at 59. The wind is a light cross-offshore from the SSW, so the conditions will be clean. The report says "surfable waves but very ordinary conditions," which is about right. It’s not going to be a classic, but it’s the first thing we’ve got in over a week, so if you’re desperate, that’s your window.

The real standout, and the only time I’d get genuinely excited, is a bit further out. On Friday morning, the 7th of August, we’ve got a notable spike. The swell jumps to 6 ft from the south, with a period of 7 seconds. That’s a short-period swell, which means it might be a bit crumbly and won’t have the long, drawn-out lines of a groundswell. The combined energy gets into the moderate range at 342. Now, here’s the good part: the wind is glassy – literally calm from the east at 3 mph. That’s a major positive. When it’s glassy, anything is rideable. With 6 ft, it’s getting into the size that’s too much for beginners, but for the rest of us, it’s the only real window of quality on the whole forecast. The vibe will be clean, but don’t expect perfection with that short period.

After that, it drops back off. Saturday the 8th has a morning window with a 3 ft NE swell and offshore wind from the west, but it’s weak and short-period again.

So, to sum it up: the first week and a half is a write-off. The only thing worth circling on the calendar is the morning of Friday the 7th of August for that glassy 6 ft south swell. It’s a long way out, so don’t book the day off work just yet, but it’s the only real promise in the 16-day window.

Rusty.

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