White Crest Beach (Wellfleet) Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Yo, it’s Rusty. Let’s talk about what’s on the table for White Crest Beach (Wellfleet) over the next couple of weeks. Right off the bat, don’t get your hopes up – this is gonna be a long, flat stretch for the most part. The water’s sitting around 68°, which is pretty much normal for this time of year, nothing wild there.

We kick things off Monday the 24th with a weak 2ft SSE swell, and while the morning has a glassy feel with a light offshore wind, the wave quality is just ordinary. The energy’s weak (63), and it’s a short-period 6-second affair – not much to get excited about. By afternoon, it drops even more to 1ft, and the wind swings cross-offshore, making it a definite no-go. Tuesday and Wednesday follow the same pattern: tiny 1ft to 2ft swells, light winds, but the waves are just too small and gutless. You’re looking at a blank run from here.

Thursday the 27th and Friday the 28th offer a little hope. Friday morning actually goes glassy with a 2ft SE swell, wind is dead calm – that’s about as clean as it gets, but the swell height is tiny and the period is only 8 seconds. It’s surfable, but you’ll be fighting for scraps. The energy’s still weak (58). Saturday and Sunday the 29th–30th are messy with cross-onshore and onshore winds, and the swell remains pathetic, 1ft to 2ft. Honestly, this setup looks more interesting for a kite surfer than a paddler if the wind picks up right.

Now, into the second week, things get a bit weird. From the 31st through to the 4th of September, you’ve got a long-period E swell arriving, with periods hitting 14 to 18 seconds, but the swell heights are still only 0.7ft to 2ft. That means a ton of period but no real push – the waves will be super slow and weak, breaking straight on the beach. On the 5th and 6th of September, the energy jumps up into the moderate-to-strong range (368-415), and swell height nudges 2ft to 3ft, but the wind is a brutal onshore gale from the NE or ENE, blowing 19-25 mph. That’s a washing machine – poor surf conditions across the board. The standout in this whole 16-day window is probably the morning of Tuesday, September 8th, where you get a 3ft ESE swell with a clean offshore wind from the WSW, and moderate wave energy (126). It’s not epic, but it’s the best we’ve got – clean lines, small but rideable. Still, for a sandbar break like this, the long-period swells in the second week will be tricky; they tend to straighten out.

Overall, this is a quiet period. If you’re desperate, the glassy Friday morning on the 28th or the clean Tuesday on the 8th are your windows. Otherwise, the forecast can always change, but right now it’s slim pickings.

Rusty.

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