Tices Sholls Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, let me tell you what I’m seeing for the next couple of weeks here at Tices Sholls.

Honestly, it’s a pretty quiet start. For the first week and a half, the surf is just not doing us any favours. We've got a run of poor conditions right through Saturday the 11th out to Saturday the 18th. The waves are small, the wind is messy, and it’s just not worth paddling out. The combined swell energy is weak, mostly hanging around 12 to 103, nothing that’ll get your heart racing. There's a lot of onshore and cross-onshore wind, and the swell is short-period and choppy. The water temp is running about average for this time of year, so no shock there.

The first real glimmer of hope shows up a bit later. By Tuesday the 21st of July, the swell starts to build. We see a pulse of 6 ft on the Tuesday morning, coming from the SSE, and the combined energy jumps right up to 350. That's moderate energy, and it suggests some real push. But the wind is onshore, and the surf is still labelled poor. Not the cleanest.

Things get a little more interesting towards the end of the period. Thursday the 23rd of July afternoon brings clean conditions with a cross-offshore breeze from the N, and 4 ft from the S with combined energy at 329. Clean surf with some size – that's worth a mention.

But the true standout, and I mean the only one worth circling on the calendar, is the morning of Friday the 24th of July. That morning we’ve got 5 ft swell from the S with a period of 8 seconds, combined energy of 310, and a gentle cross-shore breeze. It’s marginal, sure, but it’s the best we’ve got in this entire forecast. It’s a sandbar break, and with that southerly swell, it'll have some shape. You might even see a few clean ones. The crowds are only sometimes an issue here, so you might have some room. After that, the afternoon picks up a bit more size at 6 ft but the wind turns cross-onshore, so the morning is your window.

Saturday the 25th sees even bigger swell, up to 6 ft from the S, but it’s blown out by ENE winds. That combined energy hits 429, but with that onshore chop, it’s more of a messy, powerful mess than a clean wave.

So, to sum it up: it’s a long, flat, poor start. Don’t even bother until the 21st. The real moment to be in the water is the morning of Friday the 24th. That’s your one. After that, the size is there but the wind ruins it. This is a spot that sometimes goes quiet, and this is one of those stretches.

Rusty.

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