21st Street (Miami) Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, grab a seat. It’s Rusty here, and I’ve been staring at the charts for 21st Street (Miami) for the better part of the next two weeks, and I gotta be straight with you: it’s looking flat and pretty bloody ordinary. This is one of those stretches where you might want to leave the board in the car and find something else to do, because the surf is not going to be your friend.

Right off the bat, the whole 16-day window is a write-off for any decent waves. We're looking at a run of tiny, weak surf that just isn't going to offer up anything worth paddling out for. The swell energy is consistently low, with readings mostly in the low teens and twenties. For instance, on Tuesday morning we've got a weak 9 for combined energy, and it’s not much better later in the week, with a reading of 13 on Friday morning. There’s a slight bump on the 26th of August, with the energy climbing to 27 in the morning and 55 in the afternoon, but that’s still considered weak-to-moderate and the swell height stays down at 0.6-1ft. Even that little pulse on the 28th of August, with energy at 46, is not going to save the day. It’s all just poor surf conditions.

The outlook is grim across the board. For the first week, until about the 23rd, the swell is basically non-existent, coming in at a measly 0.6ft from the east. The winds are mostly cross-shore or cross-on, chopping up what little texture there is. There are a few clean windows, like the glassy morning of the 22nd, but there’s just no swell to ride. Even when the wind is offshore, the energy is so weak that the waves would be ankle-biters at best.

The second week is more of the same. There are some slightly longer period swells around the 26th and 27th, with periods hitting 15 and 16 seconds, but the height is still tiny. A long period groundswell with only 0.6ft of height is just not going to break properly, especially at a spot like this. The winds also stay messy, with afternoon sea breezes in the 18-19 mph range making things choppy and lumpy. We do get a couple of glassy mornings, like on the 29th of August, but again, no swell behind them.

If you were hoping for some kind of standout, I don't have good news for you. There isn't one. The water temp is running about average for this time of year, so at least you won't need a full winter suit while you're sitting there wondering where the waves are.

Given the combination of small, weak swell, onshore winds, and the beach setup here, if things do pick up a bit, it might honestly be more interesting for the kite surfers than us paddle surfers. For a surfer, this is about as blank a run as it gets. Stay patient, maybe work on your waxing technique, ‘cause it’s gonna be a quiet couple of weeks.

Rusty, out.

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