Black Rocks Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright folks, Rusty here. Let’s have a look at what’s on the cards.

Alright, so the forecast for this stretch is not kicking off with much to get excited about. There’s a lull at the start with tiny, weak surf. The real action doesn't build until later in the first week, and there’s a big dirty cross-breeze messing things up for a few days in the middle. There's a promising window on Friday 14th August, but the standout, if you can wait, is shaping up to be much further out.

Thursday 13th August is a write-off. Tiny 3ft swell from the SW with a short period, and cross to cross-onshore breezes. Combined energy is weak (290). Not worth paddling out.

Friday 14th August is a bright spot. Morning delivers clean, cross-offshore conditions, with a clean wave face on a tiny 2ft SW swell. The kicker is the afternoon. It goes glassy with a 5ft SSW swell, a long period of 13 seconds, and the combined energy jumps to a solid 1090 (moderate energy). This is your best bet early on – clean, crowd-prone Black Rocks can be a fun reef setup when it’s like this.

Saturday 15th brings more size but the wind shifts. Morning is 5ft S swell but with a cross-shore breeze. By the afternoon it jumps to a chunky 10ft SSW swell with 19-second period – that’s a serious groundswell – energy is very high (6243). But the wind is a moderate cross-shore chop. This is big. Over 8ft means experts only at this reef. The long period will make the lines clean, but the bump on the surface makes it a gamble.

Sunday 16th – cross-off morning on a 7ft SSW swell (16 seconds). Clean conditions, but still big. The afternoon bumps up to 8ft (16 seconds) with cross-shore chops again. Not the clean clockwork you want.

Then we hit a rough patch. Monday 17th through to Thursday 21st are dominated by strong cross-shore winds (ESE 15-18 mph) and a drop in swell quality. The swell drops from 5ft down to 2ft. The energy readings are low (between 331 and 1563). The comments say poor or marginal. It’s a flat, choppy mess. Not worth your time.

Friday 22nd August shows a pulse of 4ft SSW swell (13 seconds), but the wind is back up. Saturday 23rd has a 7ft SSW swell bumping to 8ft on Sunday (14 seconds), but it’s constantly cross-chop. It's more of a kite-surfing kind of setup, with a beach-reef combo taking a beating.

The Real Standout – Wednesday 26th August.

This is the one to circle on the calendar. The forecast shows a significant SSW pulse arriving on the morning of Wednesday 26th August. We’re talking 13ft of swell from the S with a 16-second period. The combined energy is massive, hitting 9471 – very strong wave energy. This is a major groundswell. However, there's a caveat: the wind is a strong cross-shore (ESE 15-18 mph) creating a lumpy cross-chop on the face. At over 8ft, this is strictly for experts. The long period will be better on a point or reef than a beach break, and Black Rocks is a reef, so it should handle it. But the wind will make it a battle. The afternoon looks even windier. The morning window is your only chance for something special, and even then it will be wild.

Thursday 27th and Friday 28th August see the swell drop off quickly back to 8ft and 7ft with cleaner cross-shore winds, but still lumpy. The energy is still moderate to strong but the window is closing.

So to sum it up: Friday 14th is the clean, smaller, fun session. Wednesday 26th August is the big, powerful, raw standout for the experienced crew – but don't expect perfection with that breeze. Water temp is a touch warmer than normal at 76°F, not a major change.

Rusty.

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