Backyards Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Wednesday the 16th starts things off flat and pretty ordinary – surfable little 0.5m waves at Backyards (reef), but the wind is glassy out of the NNW, which is something. Water temp is sitting at 18°, which is well above average for this time of year, almost 3° warmer than normal – that’s a touch of tropical in the water. The swell energy is weak at 51, and it’s a short-period SE wrap, so it’s not doing much. Honestly, Wednesday is about as average as it gets – you might get a grovelly one if you’re desperate.

Thursday the 17th looks similar in size, maybe 0.6m, with cleaner conditions in the morning thanks to a light offshore NNW. But the period is still short (7 seconds), energy is weak (43), and the swell direction is from the SE – not ideal. It’s clean but marginal. Friday the 18th gets a bit more wind, SSW at 20 km/h and cross-onshore – that chops things up. Saturday the 19th has a bit more hope for the swell size but it’s actually dropping – 0.3m, so it’s really tiny. Offshore wind though, 25 km/h out of the NW, and it’s clean, but there’s no push. Sunday the 20th is similar – tiny and unimpressive.

There’s a bit of a pulse coming in Monday the 21st – that 0.9m to 1.0m with offshore N winds and a little more energy in the water (90–109). Still short period, but it’s clean, and the swell direction shifts toward SSE. That’s probably the best of a weak run, but it’s still small.

Tuesday the 22nd drops back again – 0.4m to 0.5m, with offshore winds in the morning. Wednesday the 23rd is poor.

Then things get more serious heading into the end of the month. The 25th of September starts showing a solid pulse – 2.3m at 9 seconds from the SE, with the combined energy jumping to 1634 – that’s a big jump from the flatness we’ve seen. But the wind is onshore (SE at 25 km/h), and the wave comment says “poor surf conditions,” which for a beachbreak this is going to be messy and likely too stormy. The afternoon is 1.8m but still onshore, so that’s not the one.

The 28th of September is similar – 0.9m to 1.0m, but with fresh WSW cross-shore winds at 30 km/h, and a short period swell. Again, that’s more of a windswell and messy – not for the surfboard.

The 30th of September brings a long-period 12-second SE swell at 0.3m – tiny, but the period is long. The wind is cross-shore, so it’s still not clean.

Into October, the 1st gives a 0.4m SE swell with a longer period (12s), with offshore NNW winds – clean but small.

So, the standout window is Monday the 21st, and to a lesser extent the mornings on the 22nd – but only if you can handle small, clean, loggable waves. The bigger pulses on the 25th and 28th are ruined by onshore wind, so it’s a trade-off. The long-period swells on the 30th are about energy, not size – they might produce a clean but very small wave for a shortboard.

All in all, this is a nothing-to-write-home-about stretch for Backyards. If you’re a beginner, the bigger days on the 25th will be overhead-ish (2.3m) but with a short period and onshore, so it’s going to be messy – that’s expert territory and even then, it’s more of a windsurf or kitesurf day. The only real window for a clean, small day is the 21st–22nd.

But as I always say, forecasts change, and a few days of calm can set up a clean one. Stick with it, but don’t burn a weekday on this one yet.

Rusty

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