36th Street Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, surfers, Rusty here. Let’s be straight with you. I’ve looked at the charts for 36th Street, and it’s a grim picture for the next couple of weeks. We’ve got a solid stretch of nothing but tiny, weak, and messy conditions. If you’re a paddle surfer, you might want to find another hobby for a while. The swell energy is just pathetic, mostly sitting in the teens and twenties, with only a few brief bumps into the 70s and 90s that don’t amount to anything rideable.

The first week is a complete write-off. From Wednesday the 19th through to at least Monday the 24th, we're looking at ankle-biters. Swell heights are mostly under 2ft, with short periods and a lot of cross and onshore wind chop. There’s a brief moment on the morning of Sunday the 23rd where the wind goes light offshore and the period jumps to 13 seconds, but the swell is still only 0.6ft. It’s clean, but there’s nothing to ride. This is a long, flat, frustrating gap with no recommendations on offer.

Things don’t really improve as we roll into the second week. From the 25th to the 31st, the swell stays tiny, nothing over 2ft, and the wind is mostly a moderate to fresh cross-shore, making things lumpy and uninviting. The energy picks up a bit on the 27th and 28th, hitting 75 and 92, but that just means more chop on an already tiny wave. The period does get up to 13 seconds on the 26th morning, but it’s still just 0.3ft of swell. It’s a whole lot of nothing.

As we push into September, the pattern holds. The 1st has a bit of a longer period swell, but it's still only 0.6ft. Then on Wednesday the 2nd, we see the swell bump to 3ft from the south, with energy in the 74-80 range. But the period is a weak 5-6 seconds, and the wind is onshore or cross-onshore, making it a choppy, blown-out mess. Thursday the 3rd is similar, with 2ft and a 10-second period, but the wind is still cross-onshore.

The bottom line is, there are zero good surf options in this entire 16-day window. Zero. The swell is too small, too weak, and the wind is all over the place. For a spot that's a beach/jetty setup, it’s just not going to fire. To be honest, with the small, weak swell and the consistent cross-shore winds we are seeing, this setup looks more interesting for kite surfing than paddle surfing. It's a blank run, plain and simple. But, as we know, forecasts can change. It doesn't tend to stay this poor for long.

Rusty out.

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