Sunset Cliffs Surf Report & Ideal Conditions
See your personalized forecast for Sunset Cliffs
Download LazySurfer free and get surf-quality ratings tuned to the way you surf — learned from your own logged sessions.
Download LazySurfer →Best conditions for Sunset Cliffs
Sunset Cliffs is most often good on a 2–4 ft short-period (under 8s) swell from the W, with light wind from the W, on a high outgoing tide — the conditions LazySurfer surfers have logged and rated highest here.
| Ideal wave height | 2–4 ft |
| Ideal period | short-period (under 8s) |
| Best swell direction | W |
| Best wind | light wind from the W |
| Best tide | high & outgoing |
These best-conditions estimates come from real sessions LazySurfer users rated highly at this break — not an editorial guess (high-confidence read). In the app, LazySurfer's custom deep-learning model predicts your own 1–5★ rating at about 90% exact-match accuracy (97.6% within one star). How LazySurfer works →
Current conditions
Latest reading from the nearest NOAA buoys (UTC 2026-07-16 10:56 UTC). LazySurfer reads this same public NDBC data directly — no proprietary smoothing. New to buoy data? See how to read a NOAA buoy.
| Wave height | 2.6 ft |
| Dominant period | 13s |
| Swell direction | SSW (206°) |
| Wave buoy | NDBC station 46258 (14 mi away) |
| Wind | 3 kt from the S — NDBC LJPC1 (9 mi away) |
Sunset Cliffs 7-day surf forecast
Model wave & wind outlook for Sunset Cliffs from NOAA's GEFS-Wave model, refreshed daily. Heights are open-water swell (face heights at the break are typically larger).
| Day | Swell height | Period & direction | Wind |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thu Jul 16 | 3–4 ft | 16s SW | 12 kt S |
| Fri Jul 17 | 3–4 ft | 16s SW | 12 kt S |
| Sat Jul 18 | 3–5 ft | 17s SW | 9 kt SW |
| Sun Jul 19 | 5–6 ft | 14s SSW | 8 kt WSW |
| Mon Jul 20 | 5–6 ft | 14s SW | 9 kt W |
| Tue Jul 21 | 4–5 ft | 15s SW | 8 kt W |
| Wed Jul 22 | 5 ft | 15s SSW | 7 kt SW |
Tide
Predicted tide for the next two days from NOAA station 9410170 (SAN DIEGO (Broadway)), the nearest tide station (5 mi away). Times local.
- 2026-06-06 00:35 — High 4.847 ft
- 2026-06-06 08:21 — Low 0.365 ft
- 2026-06-06 15:30 — High 3.796 ft
- 2026-06-06 20:04 — Low 3.028 ft
- 2026-06-07 01:36 — High 4.374 ft
- 2026-06-07 09:08 — Low 0.628 ft
Frequently asked
Is Sunset Cliffs good for surfing right now?
As of the latest buoy reading (2026-07-16 10:56 UTC), Sunset Cliffs is marginal: the live 2–4 ft medium-period swell from the SW is off its ideal W direction and is in its ideal size range, and the wind is light from the S.
Where does LazySurfer's surf data for Sunset Cliffs come from?
LazySurfer reads public data directly from NOAA's National Data Buoy Center and the National Weather Service — the nearest NDBC wave buoy (station 46258) and the nearest NOAA tide station (SAN DIEGO (Broadway)). The same raw readings NOAA publishes, with no proprietary smoothing.
What are the best surf conditions for Sunset Cliffs?
Sunset Cliffs is most often good on a 2–4 ft short-period (under 8s) swell from the W, with light wind from the W, on a high outgoing tide — the conditions LazySurfer surfers have logged and rated highest here.
Does LazySurfer predict whether Sunset Cliffs is good for me?
Yes. LazySurfer trains a custom deep-learning model — a PyTorch neural network with per-user embeddings, retrained weekly on real logged surf sessions from the LazySurfer community — to predict the 1-to-5 star rating you personally would give, rather than a single average rating for everyone.
Nearby spots
- Ocean Beach Pier — 1 mi
- Ocean Beach — 1 mi
- Mission Beach — 3 mi
- Pacific Beach — 4 mi
- Windansea — 7 mi
Learn more: How LazySurfer works · Groundswell vs windswell · Surf period explained · Compare surf apps