36th Street Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, grab a coffee and listen up. It’s Rusty here, and I’ve been staring at the charts for the next couple of weeks. I gotta be straight with you: the surf is going to be pretty flat and uninspiring for a long stretch, so don’t get your hopes up just yet.

Right now, and for most of the first week, it’s a waiting game. We’re talking ankle-biters at best. The waves are there, but they're weak and messy. The winds are mostly onshore or cross-onshore, keeping things choppy. There’s a bit of clean weather on Monday morning, but there’s no swell to go with it. It’s a classic case of no energy in the water. For surfers, it’s a time to check your gear, maybe do some stretching, because there’s nothing rideable.

The 17th and 18th are dead flat with clean conditions, which just feels like a tease. We finally get a little bump on the 21st, but it’s short-period windswell, around 3ft, and the east wind's going to make it a messy, bumpy mess.

The first real sign of life doesn't show up until Thursday, the 27th of August. Now, that’s more than a week out, but it’s worth circling on the calendar. The wind switches offshore and the swell from the southeast starts to fill in. It’s still small, only 2ft, but with a 13-second period, there’s some push behind it. That’s the first day we might see a clean, albeit small, wave at 36th Street (Virginia Beach). The energy is moderate (122), and the offshore breeze will make it feel a lot better than it looks on paper. It’s not going to be epic, but it will be the best we’ve seen in a while.

The energy builds a touch into the end of the week, but the wind’s a problem again, so it’s still not a standout.

Then, hold on to your boards, because the last couple of days of the month get interesting. The swell is forecast to pick up significantly. We’re looking at waves around 5ft on Sunday, the 30th, and 5ft+ on Monday, the 31st. And here’s the thing, the swell energy is going through the roof – we're talking 255, 269, and 364, which is some serious power heading our way. But it’s not good news for us. This is a short-period east-northeast swell, and the wind is on it. It’s going to be a messy, closed-out, stormy-looking shorebreak. The period is only 7-8 seconds, which means it’s just a wall of whitewater. Honestly, with that size and the onshore wind, the lineup is gonna be a washing machine. If you’re not an expert, stay well clear. It might be more interesting for the kite surfers to be honest.

The last surfable day on the 27th is our only real highlight in the whole 16 days. It’s clean, it’s glassy, and it’s a far cry from the junky stuff we’ve had. The southeast swell direction is right in that sweet spot for the break, and even though it’s small, it’ll be the pick of the bunch. After that, the bigger surf on the 30th and 31st is a warning, not a welcome. It’s a powerful, but messy, close-out.

So that’s the long and short of it. A whole lot of nothing, a little flash of clean potential on the 27th, followed by a powerful but ugly finale.

Rusty, out.

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