Tijuana Sloughs Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, let’s break this down. Lookin’ at the big picture, we’ve got a long stretch ahead around the Tijuana Sloughs area, and honestly, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. For the next couple of weeks, the surf is going to be there, but conditions are going to be a real fight for anything clean. The real standout window is very limited, so we gotta be patient.

Right off the bat, the first couple of days are pretty lackluster. Tuesday the 25th, you’re lookin’ at waist-high swell from the southwest, around 2ft to 4ft, with a very long 16-second period. That deep, long groundswell carries some moderate energy, but the onshore west wind is really gonna mess with the surface. It’ll be bumpy and hard to love. Wednesday the 26th gets a touch bigger—chest-high at 5ft from the south, period around 12 seconds, and the energy climbs. But the wind is cross-shore and cross-on, so it’s gonna be choppy. The water temp is about average for this time of year, nothin’ weird going on.

Thursday the 27th sees the swell drop back down to 4ft from the south, with a shorter 11-second period. Winds stay cross-on from the southwest, so it’s still not pretty. By Friday the 28th, we’re in trouble—swell bottoms out at 2ft, energy drops, and conditions are just poor. This is a big gap where there’s nothin’ worth paddling out for. That poor spell runs all the way through the end of August and into the first few days of September. There are decent swells in the water on the 3rd and 4th of September—4ft from the south-southwest, with a very long 17 to 18-second period—but the wind is relentless from the northwest, cross-on, keeping everything ugly. The energy is solid though, so the ocean’s got power, just not the shape.

Now the one glimmer, and the true standout of this outlook, is the afternoon of Thursday the 5th of September, into the morning of Saturday the 6th. We get a 4ft south-southwest swell, period around 16 seconds, and the combined energy is strong. But here’s the kicker—the wind finally turns for a moment. On Sunday morning the 6th, it’s a light onshore breeze from the west at 6 mph, making for that glassy, clean surface. That’s our window. Tijuana Sloughs is a river mouth, so that long-period groundswell can be a bit tricky (gotta watch for it going too straight), but with clean conditions on a decent 3ft swell, it’ll be the best we see. Expect some crowd, because a spot like this with clean waves is popular when it’s right, and the optimum swell direction from the south-southwest matches what’s comin’.

After that, Monday the 7th and Tuesday the 8th fade back to small, weak surf with onshore wind. The last event on the 9th of September is tiny (2ft) with a crazy long 19-second period, but the wind is cross-on again, just not worth the effort.

So, bottom line: the surf is mostly small or messy for the next week and a half. The only real highlight is that brief clean stretch around the 6th of September at the Sloughs. For the rest, you might be better off with a kite if you’ve got one, because the conditions at the beach-and-river setup are more interesting for that than for a paddle board.

This is a long gap of poor or marginal days, so don’t get your hopes up too much until that first weekend in September.

Rusty

Read more