Tijuana Sloughs Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, folks, Rusty here. Let's have a look at what Tijuana Sloughs is shaping up to offer over the next couple of weeks.

Straight up, this is a tough run. We've got a long gap right from the start with nothing really worth paddling out for. The first decent-looking surf doesn't show until around Friday the 21st of August, and even then, it's only rated as marginal. That's a solid five days of no-go from today.

The pattern is pretty flat and uninspiring for a while. For most of the 16 days, we're looking at small, weak swell from the SW to SSW, with combined wave energy mostly in the 200 to 500 range – that's weak to just nudging into moderate. That 15-second period on some of those swells is nice, suggesting some long-period groundswell, but the size is just too small to do anything with at a river mouth like this.

Water temp is sitting at 72°, which is a touch warmer than normal for this time of year.

The standout, and I'm using that term loosely, would be the window around Saturday the 29th and Sunday the 30th of August. We see a bit of a bump with swell size creeping up to 3 ft from the SSW, and the combined energy gets into the 500 to 669 range on the 29th afternoon – the most energy we see across the whole period. The period hovers around 15 to 16 seconds, which is great for shape, but watch the cross-onshore wind. It's light, but it's constant from the NW, which will keep the surface a bit bumpy. For the advanced crew that knows this break, those afternoons on the 29th and 30th are the only real chance for a few longer-period lines, even if they aren't perfect.

Sunday the 23rd also shows a brief pulse of 2 ft swell with a very long 19-second period, but the energy is still weak at 387 to 428, and the wind is light and variable. Might be a funky, slow one for a longboard if the tide is right.

Overall, it's a lean few weeks. There's no big swell, and the wind just never cleans up properly. For the average surfer, there's really nothing to get excited about here. For the dedicated advanced surfer, keep an eye on that last weekend of August for a few small, clean-ish windows. The rest of the time, the combo of small swell and persistent cross-onshore winds makes this look more interesting for a kite than a paddle board.

Rusty.

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