Bonza Bay Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Right, well, looking at the 16-day window for Bonza Bay, it’s a bit of a frustrating stretch if I’m honest. We’ve got a lot of days where the wind is just a bit too messy or the swell is coming in with too much chop, leaving most of the forecast looking pretty ordinary. The first real chance of anything decent doesn't show up until the very beginning.

Alright, let's get into it. The first sniff of a wave we can work with is on Wednesday afternoon, the 2nd of September. It’s a bit marginal with a 5ft SSW swell, period around 14 seconds, but the wind is a light 6 mph easterly, so it’s cross-onshore. The water temp is sitting at a pretty average 66 °F for this time of year. The combined energy reading is 826 (moderate), but the comment says it’s questionable tide conditions, so it'll be a bit of a gamble, not a standout by any means. Honestly, that score of 1 out of 10 tells you everything. Thursday morning the 3rd drops to 3ft from the S, period 11 seconds, with a light cross-shore SW wind – again, just marginal.

Now, the first time we see any real size is Friday morning the 4th of September. We’ve got a 10ft SSE swell pumping in, with the combined energy hitting 1814 (strong). But here’s the kicker – the wind is a solid 19 mph SSE onshore. That’s going to chop it right up. For a river mouth like Bonza Bay, that’s going to be a messy, blown-out mess. At that size, it's strictly for experts, and even then, it’s not going to be pretty. Friday afternoon stays big at 8ft, but the wind is still onshore at 12 mph SE. This setup looks far more interesting for kite surfing than for paddle surfing.

The rest of the first week and into the second is a tale of onshore and cross-shore winds ruining the fun. Saturday the 5th has 4ft to 5ft, but moderate cross-shore winds, and the period drops to 8 seconds, which is short, weak, and messy. The wind really gets howling from Sunday the 6th through Tuesday the 8th, with gusts up to 28 mph, making conditions sloppy and lumpy. The wave energy is there in the numbers, like Sunday afternoon with 1375 (strong), but it’s wasted in the cross-chop.

We finally get a bit of a reprieve on Tuesday morning the 8th. The wind drops right back to a light 6 mph S breeze, making it a light cross-onshore, and we get a 6ft swell from the E at 9 seconds. The combined energy is 740 (moderate), and it picks up a score of 2. Although it’s not a classic long-period groundswell, that near-glass is a big positive, and it’ll be the cleanest we’ve seen in a while. Probably the closest thing to a small, fun session for intermediate surfers.

The real potential standout in this whole forecast, and it’s a long way off, is Monday morning the 14th of September. We see a 5ft swell from the S with a very long period of 14 seconds, combined energy of 1334 (strong), and a light 9 mph NE wind that’s just cross-shore. That long, 14-second period is a proper groundswell, and for a river mouth, that can set up some really good, lined-up walls. The wind is a gentle breeze, so it should be relatively clean. This is the one to keep an eye on, though it’s nearly two weeks away, so don’t book the day off just yet – it’s promising but less certain. The rest of the second week is plagued by strong winds again, with a 3ft SSW swell on Thursday the 17th that’s clean with a cross-offshore wind, but it’s just too small to get excited about.

So, overall, it’s a tough run. We have a lot of days where the conditions don’t line up at all, and frankly, most of the window is a write-off. The only two that stand out as reasonable are Tuesday morning the 8th for a small, clean wave, and the potential of Monday the 14th for something with more power and shape. The rest is best left for the kites.

Rusty.

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