Arue Beach Surf Forecast and Surf Report

G’day, Rusty here. Look, I’ll be straight with you – this 16-day window for Arue Beach is a tough one. We’ve got a long stretch of nothing much, so don’t bother checking the cam for a while. The first real bit of interest doesn’t pop up until Thursday, the 13th of August, and even then it’s a bit of a gamble.

The water temp is sitting at 80°, which is about bang on average for this time of year, so no surprises there.

The outlook starts with a whole lot of nothing. From Thursday, the 6th, right through to Wednesday, the 12th, it’s basically a write-off. Tiny, weak swell with strong offshore winds that just make it impossible to get into anything. The combined energy is mostly in the single digits or low teens (87) at best, but that’s with poor surf quality. You’ll see a lot of “poor surf conditions” in the log – and that’s the truth. The waves are small, the wind is howling, and it’s just not worth paddling out.

Then we get to Thursday, the 13th. The morning is glassy – dead calm, zero wind – but the swell is only 0.7 ft, so it’s still a flat, glassy pond. Not surfable. The afternoon, though, things shift. A cross-shore light breeze kicks in, and we get a 5 ft swell from the ENE with a period of 9 seconds. The combined energy jumps to 288 (moderate energy). This is the only real pulse in the whole forecast. But it’s marked as “marginal surf forecast or questionable tide conditions,” so it’s not a slam dunk. The swell height is right on the edge of being okay for an intermediate, and the direction is ENE, which is not the optimum NNW direction for this spot. It’s a bit of a gamble, but it’s the only thing that looks even halfway interesting.

After that, Friday the 14th through to Tuesday the 18th brings back the strong offshore winds (25-28 mph) and zero swell. The wind is so strong it’s hard to even paddle. The combined energy is mostly zero. Not a chance.

Finally, on Wednesday, the 19th of August, we get a little glimmer. The morning is glassy again, with a small 1 ft swell from the WSW at a very long period of 13 seconds. The combined energy is only 62, so weak, but the conditions are described as “surfable waves but very ordinary conditions.” That long-period WSW swell is a groundswell, but at a beach break like Arue, it’ll likely break too straight. Still, with glassy conditions, it’s the best-looking session of the whole run. The afternoon gets a cross-shore wind, which messes it up again.

The final day, Thursday the 20th, is glassy again in the morning but with zero swell, and then Friday the 21st offers a tiny 1 ft NNE swell with a moderate offshore wind. It’s surfable but ordinary, with combined energy around 55.

So, the standout? There’s only one, and it’s the Thursday, the 13th afternoon. The 5 ft ENE swell is the biggest we get, but it’s a cross-shore wind and a questionable tide. The other potential is Wednesday, the 19th morning – the glassy conditions with that long-period groundswell, even though it’s small. If you’re desperate, those are your two windows. But honestly, this is a lean run. The crowds at Arue Beach are sometimes an issue, but with this forecast, you’ll have the place to yourself.

Rusty.

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