Caerhays Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Right then, let’s have a look at what’s on the cards for Caerhays.

To be straight with you, mate, this is a tough outlook. Over the next 16 days, there simply isn’t a single session that offers decent surf. The wave energy is very low, barely registering a pulse, and what little swell that shows up is weak and messy. We’re looking at a real dry spell here.

Let’s break it down. From the start on Sunday the 2nd of August right through until Friday the 14th of August, it’s basically flat or ankle-high dribble. Swell heights are stuck between 0.3 ft and 0.7 ft, with periods hanging around 4 to 8 seconds—that’s pure windswash, nothing with any push. Wind is all over the place, but mostly onshore or cross-shore, ruining even that tiny bit of shape. The combined energy readings are in the single digits or low double digits (3 to 36), which is just a whisper in the water. You might see a clean morning here and there, like the 7th of August with glassy conditions, but with only 0.3 ft of swell, it’s not worth paddling out for.

A bit of a lift shows up on Saturday the 15th of August. The swell bumps up to 4 ft in the morning and 5 ft in the afternoon, coming from the ESE with a period of 5–7 seconds. The combined energy hits 96 and then 223 (moderate wave energy) on the Saturday arvo, so there’s finally some water moving. But the wind is onshore from the WSW and SW, pushing that swell straight into chop. It’s going to be lumpy and messy—not the clean lines we’d want. That trend continues into Sunday the 16th of August, with a poor 5 ft swell from the ESE (period 8 seconds) and onshore wind up to 19 mph, giving a combined energy of 274. Monday the 17th sees the biggest swell of the whole run, at 6 ft from the ESE, but again the wind is cross-on from the SW at 9 mph, and with a short period of just 6 seconds and combined energy of 291, it’s going to be a roped-up, onshore mess. At that size and with those conditions, it’s really more of a kitesurfer’s or windsurfer’s setup than a paddler’s wave.

Caerhays itself is a fairly exposed break that handles a SSW swell best, but we’re not seeing that direction in any meaningful way. It’s also listed as inconsistent, which fits the pattern here. Honestly, this is a blank run that’s pretty normal for the area when conditions align like this—just nothing to get excited about. Hang in there, forecasts can change.

Rusty.

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