Apollo Bay Surf Forecast and Surf Report

G'day, I'm Rusty, and I've been staring at the charts for Apollo Bay. The forecast is a decent run of swell, but we've got to wade through a bit of average stuff to get to the good bits.

We kick off on Monday the 17th with a 5ft SW groundswell pushing in, but it's wind-affected and messy. The combined wave energy is sitting at (1105), which is moderate-to-strong, but the quality is all wrong with an onshore breeze. You'd be better off grabbing a coffee. Tuesday the 18th is more of the same, with a drop in size to 3ft and cross-onshore winds keeping things choppy. Wednesday the 19th is tiny, but by the afternoon we start seeing some hope with a cross-offshore breeze cleaning up the 2ft swell. Thursday the 20th looks a bit more promising. The morning is still small (2ft) but clean, and by the afternoon the wind goes offshore from the west with the swell bumping to 3ft – that's the first window for a tired but clean wave.

Now, the real action starts Friday the 21st. This is the standout window. We've got a solid 5ft SW groundswell with a long period of 15 seconds, and the wind is offshore from the WNW. The wave energy jumps to (939), and it's looking clean and lined up. This is the day to point the car at Apollo Bay. Saturday the 22nd brings a bigger swell, hitting 7ft out of the SW, but it's powerful with (2366) on the energy scale. It's a bit heavy for the average punter, and the offshore wind will make it hollow. This is for the experienced crew only. Sunday the 23rd is the real gem. We've got a 6ft SW swell with light offshore winds, and the energy is at (1561). The forecast calls it excellent for experienced surfers, and I'd agree – the banks should be handling this nicely.

After that, the surf settles down a bit but stays clean through to Tuesday the 25th and Wednesday the 26th. The water temp is sitting on a normal 57° for this time of year, so don't expect a tropical bath.

The first week's highlight is definitely Friday the 21st and Sunday the 23rd. For the second week, I'm keeping an eye on the 30th of August. We get a 7ft SSW swell in the morning – it's a bit short-period at 8 seconds, so it'll be lumpy, but the afternoon clean-up with 6ft from the S with (1243) of energy has potential. There's also a late call on the 31st of August with a massive 20-second period SW groundswell at 4ft. That's a very long period groundswell, which means it's going to stand up nicely at Apollo Bay's point setup, but the onshore wind might kill it. Look, it's promising, but it's a long way out so don't book the week off yet.

Keep an eye on the crowds, because Apollo Bay can get busy when it's clean.

Rusty.

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