36th Street Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, folks, Rusty here. Let’s get straight into it. The next 16 days are looking pretty grim for 36th Street. This isn’t a forecast to get excited about; we’re staring down a long stretch of tiny, weak waves, and there’s really no standout session to save the run. The water is a warm 77°, which is about 4° warmer than usual for this time of year – that’s a notable anomaly, so you can leave the thick wetsuit at home, but the surf just isn’t going to cooperate.

We start off with a real dud on Wednesday, August 26th. The morning offers a glassy 1 ft swell from the SE, but it’s a meager 9-second period, and there’s just no energy to speak of (26). The afternoon gets messy with a cross-onshore wind, so that’s a write-off. Thursday and Friday stay in the same tiny range, 1 ft to 2 ft, with only brief windows of clean conditions but nothing rideable. The weekend through the end of August is a washout – more of the same small, weak, and often choppy surf. The combined energy readings are all in the double digits, well under 100, which tells you there’s no punch at all.

Moving into the first week of September, it’s a long, flat stretch. Monday, September 1st, has a brief moment of a 0.3 ft swell with a 15-second period – that’s a very long period groundswell, but it’s so small it’s not doing anything. The energy is a paltry 15. The rest of the first week offers "clean" conditions but waves barely reaching 2 ft. It’s not until Thursday, September 3rd, that we see a tiny glimmer: a 1 ft SE swell with a 10-second period and a clean morning, but it’s still rated as very ordinary. Around Friday, September 4th, the swell bumps up to 3 ft from the E, and the energy finally climbs into the moderate triple digits (110), but with a strong cross-shore wind and a period of only 8 seconds, it’s messy and short-period. That pattern holds through the weekend: more energy but poor conditions.

The best of a bad bunch looks to be Tuesday, September 8th. The morning brings a 4 ft swell from the SSE, with a clean cross-offshore wind from the WNW. The energy is moderate at 116. It’s the biggest swell we’ll see, but it’s only a 6-second period, so it’s steep and weak – a short, choppy windswell. It’s not terrible, but it’s not good either. After that, Wednesday and Thursday, September 9th and 10th, drop back to tiny, clean, but almost flat conditions.

Honestly, there’s no real standout here. The water’s warm, but the surf is a bust. The entire 16-day window is a write-off for 36th Street. You’re better off checking the cam or taking a break until something real shows up.

Rusty.

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