which break, which board

San Diego · generated 2026-08-30 14:31

Monday, August 31

A maybe day. PB Drive is the best of it on the dawn patrol with the 5'8 Fish — read the notes before you commit.

Water 71.2°F at Scripps Pier · Trunks + Wetsuit Top

Dawn patrol

7:00 - 8:30am

Swell

4.5ft @ 9.9s

from SW · ~3.8ft face

2.5ft @ 15s groundswell under 3.8ft @ 8s chop · buoy 46258

Tide

2.5ft

mid, rising

Wind

2.6 mph S

69.5°F air

PB Drive Maybe

~3.8ft face · crowd ★★☆☆☆ · All levels · 15 min

Board call

5'8 Fish

Backup: 6'0 Surfer Rosa

'Fish or funboard, especially during those Autumn combo swells'

Near-glassy. Go
3.8ft of 8s chop carrying 70% of the energy -- relentless paddle, textured faces, no lulls

Cardiff Reef Maybe

~3.8ft face · crowd ★★★☆☆ · All levels · 31 min

Board call

7'6 Magic

Backup: 6'5 Egg

The Magic's job description -- trim and glide down a long mushy wall. Frye 7.5" for hold

Near-glassy. Go
3.8ft of 8s chop carrying 70% of the energy -- relentless paddle, textured faces, no lulls

Crystal Pier Maybe

~3.8ft face · crowd ★★★★☆ · Intermediate-advanced at the pier · 16 min

Board call

6'0 Surfer Rosa

Backup: 5'8 Fish

Chest-high plus with push

Near-glassy. Go
3.8ft of 8s chop carrying 70% of the energy -- relentless paddle, textured faces, no lulls

9 more breaks

Break	Call	Board	Min	Score
Mission Beach	Maybe	6'0 Surfer Rosa	13	74
OB Pier	Maybe	5'8 Fish	12	73
OB Jetty	Maybe	6'0 Surfer Rosa	13	72
Sunset Cliffs	Maybe	6'0 Surfer Rosa	16	69
Black's Beach	Maybe	7'6 Magic	22	68
Scripps Pier	Skip	5'8 Fish	19	58
La Jolla Shores	Skip	5'4 Mini-Simmons	17	56
Swami's	Skip	7'6 Magic	35	53
PB Point	Skip	9'4 Pink Panther	19	46

Evening glass

6:15pm - 7:15pm (sunset 7:15pm)

Swell

4.2ft @ 9.4s

from SW · ~3.4ft face

2.3ft @ 15s groundswell under 3.5ft @ 8s chop · buoy 46258

Tide

1.2ft

low, rising

Wind

7.2 mph NW

72.5°F air

Cardiff Reef Maybe

~3.4ft face · crowd ★★★☆☆ · All levels · 31 min

Board call

9'4 Pink Panther

Backup: 7'6 Magic

Long soft walls, no push. Log it

Swell's SW -- in the window, but well off the best angle here (WNW)
The kelp's doing its job on this NW bump -- combed here while PB, Mission and OB go victory-at-sea
3.5ft of 8s chop carrying 70% of the energy -- relentless paddle, textured faces, no lulls

OB Pier Maybe

~3.4ft face · crowd ★★★★☆ · Beginner to advanced · 12 min

Check before you paddle. Chronic source nearby even in dry weather

Board call

5'8 Fish

Backup: 6'0 Surfer Rosa

Fish or Rosa on paper. Waterhog in practice, more days than not

3.5ft of 8s chop carrying 70% of the energy -- relentless paddle, textured faces, no lulls

Black's Beach Skip

~4.8ft face · crowd ★★★★☆ · Intermediate to advanced, depending on size · 22 min

Board call

6'0 Surfer Rosa

Backup: 6'5 Egg

Chest-to-head with real push behind it

Canyon amplification ~+62% (modelled) on the 15s energy (buoy reads 15s in the water; the model's blended 9s hides it)
Swell's SW -- in the window, but well off the best angle here (WNW)
3.5ft of 8s chop carrying 70% of the energy -- relentless paddle, textured faces, no lulls

9 more breaks

Break	Call	Board	Min	Score
PB Drive	Skip	5'8 Fish	15	61
OB Jetty	Skip	6'0 Surfer Rosa	13	59
Sunset Cliffs	Skip	6'0 Surfer Rosa	16	59
Crystal Pier	Skip	5'8 Fish	16	57
La Jolla Shores	Skip	5'4 Mini-Simmons	17	51
Mission Beach	Skip	6'0 Surfer Rosa	13	49
Swami's	Skip	7'6 Magic	35	45
Scripps Pier	Skip	5'8 Fish	19	41
PB Point	Skip	9'4 Pink Panther	19	20

Water quality — check before you go

Nothing acute, but the chronic spots are still the chronic spots.

Rain none in 5 daysSan Diego River 2.5 cfs · dry-weather baseflow

This is inferred, not official. There is no public API for County of San Diego beach advisories, so this brief cannot see them. It reasons from rainfall history and live San Diego River discharge (USGS gauge 11023000) against each break's known chronic sources. A posted advisory or a sewage spill will not appear here. The authoritative check is sdbeachinfo.com or 619-338-2073 — and at OB Jetty, the folder's instruction is to check it every single time. Post-rain windows here are 48h for light rain and longer for storms; the County advises a flat 72 hours after any rain.

Tides — La Jolla / Scripps Pier

Low 0.9ft 05:13High 5.4ft 11:34Low 1.0ft 18:00High 4.2ft 23:55

Buoy 46258 (Mission Bay, last reading 2026-08-30 20:56 UTC): swell 3.0ft @ 15.4s from SSW, wind wave 4.6ft @ 8.3s. The model and the buoy agree on total height; they split the swell and wind-wave partition differently, so size here is driven by the total.

Sunrise 06:23 · sunset 19:15 · generated 2026-08-30 14:31.
Swell and wind from Open-Meteo Marine + Forecast models; tides from NOAA CO-OPS station 9410230; buoy from NDBC 46258. Scoring windows are derived from the write-ups in 01-San-Diego-Breaks/ — degree ranges approximate the compass directions in those notes, since no public source publishes degree windows for these spots except Black's. Face heights are estimates, not measurements. The marine model grid is ~5km and cannot resolve one break from its neighbour: the canyon lens at Black's/Scripps/the Shores and the kelp effect at Sunset Cliffs are applied from the folder's own research, not from the model. Check sdbeachinfo.com before OB.