Belle Ile Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, this is Rusty. Let's have a look at what Belle Ile has in store for us over the next couple of weeks.

Honestly, I gotta be straight with you – this is a tough one to call good news for. The entire 16-day window is a bit of a heartbreaker. The swell is there, and even gets big, but the wind is just a constant battle. We’re looking at onshore and cross-onshore winds almost every day, which means a lot of choppy, lumpy, and just plain messy conditions. The only real standout is a brief window of clean, small surf, but it’s tiny.

We start off on Wednesday the 19th with a fresh 22 mph cross-onshore wind and a weak 4ft swell from the west. The combined energy is a paltry 69, so it’s weak and bumpy. Not worth getting wet. This pattern of poor surf with moderate to fresh onshore winds just drags on. Thursday the 20th has a bit more size at 5ft and the energy picks up to 345, but it’s still onshore. The water temp is 68°, which is a bit warmer than usual for this time of year, a nice anomaly of 2°, but you won’t enjoy it if you’re getting blown off your board.

The only real glimmer of hope comes on Sunday the 23rd. We get a shift in the wind early to a strong cross-offshore breeze from the ENE, cleaning the waves right up. The problem is the swell drops right off to 1ft, with energy at just 31. It’s clean, but it’s tiny. The afternoon stays clean with a cross-offshore breeze, but the swell is even smaller at 1.0ft. Monday the 24th is glassy calm in the afternoon, but with a 0.7ft swell, it’s a lake. If you’ve got a longboard and some patience, maybe you could get a ride, but it’s a real scraper.

Then we go into another lull before things get serious. From the 26th of August, the swell starts to build, but so does the wind. Wednesday the 26th brings a 7ft swell from the WSW, but with a strong 28 mph cross-onshore wind, it’s a messy 689 units of energy. Not for the faint of heart, and definitely not for beginners. The real meat shows up on Thursday the 27th with an 8ft swell from the WSW, and by the afternoon it’s a 10ft west swell. That’s deep water, expert-only territory, and the wind is still onshore. The energy is huge, hitting 2198, but the quality is poor.

That big swell hangs around. The 31st of August has a 10ft swell with a 13-second period, which is a long-period groundswell, but it's cross-onshore, so it’s going to be a hairy, walled-up mess at the beach. By the afternoon, it’s 13ft from the west – that’s serious power. Anything over 8ft is for experts only, and with that wind, it’s a washing machine. This pattern of big, onshore, messy surf continues into the first week of September.

So, the best on offer? That’s a tough one. The cleanest conditions are that Sunday the 23rd and Monday the 24th, but the swell is barely there. For the bigger stuff, the 27th of August has size, but it’s a battle. If I had to pick one, I’d say the Sunday morning, the 23rd of August, is your only chance for a clean wave, even if it’s a small one. For the rest of it, this is a kite-surfing forecast more than a paddle-surfing one. Keep your eyes on the charts, because this run of poor quality can’t last forever.

Rusty

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