Tijuana Sloughs Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright folks, Rusty here. Let's have a look at the outlook for the Sloughs.

To be straight with you, the next 16 days are a tough watch. We’ve got a lot of swell on the cards, but the wind is just not playing ball for the majority of it. The water is sitting at 71°, which is a touch warmer than normal for this time of year – not a bad thing for a dawny.

The first real window we have to talk about kicks off on Saturday the 5th. We’re seeing a solid 5ft swell from the south, with a period of 13 seconds. That's a decent amount of energy in the water, but the wind is a cross-on from the WNW at 9 mph. That’s going to chop it up, leaving us with marginal, fairly choppy conditions. It’s surfable, but you’ll be working for it. Not the best start.

Sunday the 6th sees the swell bump up to 7ft from the SSW in the morning, with a lot more energy. That’s proper size, but again the wind is a moderate cross-shore from the NNW at 12 mph. It’s going to be a messy cross-chop. That size is getting into the territory where it’s only for experienced surfers, and with the wind, it’s not looking good. The afternoon drops off to 5ft, but the wind goes cross-on, making it even worse.

Monday the 7th keeps that trend going: 6ft swell from the SSW, but cross-on wind from the NW. It’s just messy. Tuesday the 8th drops in size but the cross-on wind sticks around. Honestly, this first week is a write-off for clean, quality waves at Tijuana Sloughs.

The standouts here? Honestly, there aren’t any in the classic sense. The best on offer, and I’m using that term loosely, looks to be the late-period stuff. Around Wednesday the 9th and Thursday the 10th, we see a shift. The swell drops right off to 2ft and 4ft, but the period stretches out to 16 seconds. That’s a very long period groundswell. The wind also lightens up significantly. On Wednesday morning the 9th we get a clean 2ft onshore wind from the WSW at 6 mph. It’s small, but with that long period, the Sloughs can turn those tiny lines into something workable. Thursday the 10th is similar, with 4ft and 16-second period from the SW, with light cross-on wind. It’s marginal, but it’s the cleanest the place will look for a while. This is the time to be there with a log or a fish.

After that, we drop off again. The second week is a mix of small, weak swell and poor conditions. There’s a pulse of WNW windswell around the 13th and 14th, but it’s short period (8 seconds) and the quality is poor. The 18th and 19th bring another round of long-period SW groundswell, with a 19-second period on the 18th and 18-second period on the 19th. The swell size is tiny though, 2ft. If you have a big foamy and a lot of patience, those days could be fun, but it’s a long-range promise that’s far from certain.

To sum it up: the first week is blown out by solid but messy conditions. The real window is the 9th and 10th of September for some clean, long-period tiny waves. After that, we have a long gap of poor to marginal conditions until the 18th and 20th, which offer a glimmer of long-period hope, but it's a long way off and the size is minimal.

Stay patient, keep an eye on the wind, and if you see that WSW on the forecast, you know what to do.

Rusty.

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