Brighton Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, my fellow wave hunters, Rusty here, digging into the outlook for Brighton. Straight up, I gotta be honest with you, this is a tough one. For the next 16 days, this stretch of coast is looking like a write-off for any decent paddle surfing. The guidance points to Brighton being fairly exposed to a SW swell, but the reality of what's coming in just doesn't stack up. It's inconsistent at the best of times, and this run looks particularly bleak.

We kick off on Monday the 24th of August with absolutely nothing doing. The water temp is sitting at a balmy 70°, which is a massive 7° warmer than usual for this time of year – that's seriously weird water. The problem from the start is wind. We've got a strong, fresh breeze from the East at 22 mph on Monday morning, creating a lumpy cross-chop on top of a tiny 3 ft, 4-second windswell. It's basically a mess, and that score of 0 tells you everything. Even when it goes clean on Monday arvo, the swell drops to 0.3 ft. Forget it.

This flat, poor trend continues all the way through the week. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday – it’s all tiny dribble with cross-onshore winds chopping it up. The energy numbers are pitiful, mostly single-digit and low two-digit readings. It's not until Friday the 28th of August that we see a pulse of size, with 6 ft of SW swell arriving in the morning and building to 8 ft in the afternoon. The combined energy jumps to 240 and then a solid 881, so there's plenty of water moving. But look at that wind – a strong breeze from the SW at 25 mph, hammering straight onshore. That combo is just a churning, messy, stormy sea. Even an 8 ft swell is only for experts, and with that wind, it's unsurfable. This setup is honestly more interesting for kite surfing than paddle surfing, if that’s your thing.

Saturday the 29th and Sunday the 30th are more of the same lumpy, onshore slop. We get a little reprieve on Wednesday the 2nd of September, where a gentle cross-offshore breeze from the NNW cleans up a 4 ft, 4-second swell. The energy is weak at only 46, but it would be the cleanest window of the entire forecast. It's a small, weak wave, but it's something.

We see a little more size pop up on Friday the 5th of September, with 5 ft of WSW groundswell at 6 seconds. The energy is moderate at 114. The morning looks clean with a light cross-offshore from the WNW at just 9 mph. That’s another opportunity for a small, clean wave, but it’s not a standout.

Then it fades back to nothing. There’s a weird, long-period ghost swell from the W at 16-20 seconds on the 7th and 8th of September, but it’s only 0.3 ft to 1 ft. That's just an ocean swell, no surfable waves. So, to wrap it up, there are no true standouts here. The cleanest, most surfable windows are the early mornings of Wednesday the 2nd and Saturday the 5th of September. They'll offer weak but clean small waves for a longboard or a foiler. For anything with real push, you're out of luck.

Rusty.

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