Tices Sholls Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, Rusty here. Let’s check the situation for Tices Sholls over the next couple of weeks.

Right off the bat, I gotta be straight: this is a tough stretch for anyone lookin’ for a real wave. The whole 16-day window is flat, weak, and mostly messy. There’s no standout session where everything clicks. The combined swell energy barely hits triple digits except for one brief moment, and even then the conditions are ugly.

The water’s runnin’ about 75° right now, just a touch warmer than normal – not enough to change your rubber, but you’ll feel it’s a little on the mild side.

We start on Thursday the 27th with a cross-on breeze out of the SSE at 12 mph messin’ up a tiny 2ft ESE swell. Nothin’ doin’. That carries through the rest of the week. Friday morning the 28th gives us a moment of flat calm – dead calm wind – but the swell is a whimpy 2ft with 8-second period, so the surface is glassy but there’s no push. You could paddle around and catch a knee-high dribbler, but it’s a real grind.

The weekend is straight-up poor. By Sunday the 30th, the swell drops to 1ft with only 25 units of combined energy – that’s barely a ripple. Monday the 31st has a clean window with offshore wind from the W at 9 mph, but it’s still only 1ft of 7-second junk. You’d be fightin’ for one close-out every five minutes.

Tuesday the 1st of September, same story. Energy numbers in the teens and twenties. That holds for days. Wednesday the 2nd sees a little lift: long-period 11-second SE swell pushin’ 2-2ft with combined energy up to 88 – but the wind is onshore from the ESE at 6 mph and the wave state is unknown, likely lumpy. Not worth the effort.

The 3rd of September (Thursday) is the only truly clean window of the whole outlook: WNW offshore breeze at 9 mph, clean 2ft SE swell. Combined energy about 61 to 77, so it’s weak, but at least it’s not blown out. A beginner could sit out there and catch a few knee-high lefts without much trouble. Crowds are only “sometimes” here at Tices Sholls, so you might have it mostly to yourself, especially midweek.

After that, it fades again. The 4th is cross-on with rain. The 5th has a fresh 19 mph ENE cross-on wind makin’ a mess of a 4ft NE swell with a 4-second period – total wind slop. Sunday the 6th of September shows the highest combined swell energy of the whole run: 202 units with a 5ft ENE swell at 7 seconds. But it’s cross-on from the E at 16 mph, so it’ll be lumpy and choppy. That kind of energy with bad wind is more for kites than surfboards. After that, the energy drops back into the 20s and 30s for the next week, with onshore winds or clean but tiny waves.

Bottom line: if you’re desperate, the best you’ll get is the 3rd of September – Tices Sholls under a light WNW offshore, waist-high at best, clean, and quiet. Every other day is either flat, blown out, or both. This is a lean run, but it happens. Forecasts can change. Keep an eye on it.

Rusty.

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