Crab Island Surf Forecast and Surf Report

G’day, Rusty here.

I’ll be straight with you – the next couple of weeks at Crab Island are a total washout for anyone hoping to get a decent paddle. There’s not a single slot in these 16 days that I’d call good, let alone great. The whole window is a long, flat, choppy mess.

The first real chance of anything rideable doesn’t show up until Thursday the 13th of August, and even then it’s barely worth the effort. That morning we’ve got 4ft of WSW swell with a short period of 8 seconds – not much push behind it. The combined swell energy is moderate at 181, but the wind’s glassy, so it’ll be clean. Problem is, the water’s a whopping 4° warmer than usual – 68° – which is pretty wild for this time of year. The waves are surfable, but the quality is ordinary. Not something to get excited about.

A couple of days later, Saturday the 15th of August morning, is the other faint flicker. Same story – 4ft WSW swell, 8-second period, 176 combined energy. The wind is light and cross-off, so it’ll look clean enough, but again it’s just ordinary conditions.

Apart from those two glimmers, the rest of the forecast is nothing but small, weak, and chopped-out junk. Winds are mostly cross, cross-on, or strong, and the swell never gets above 5ft – but that day (Wednesday the 5th) has a fresh cross-breeze that makes it a lumpy mess. The combined energy tops out at 261 that afternoon, but with 19 mph cross-winds and a short 7-second period, it’s not surfable.

Crab Island itself is a reef break that’s fairly consistent and exposed to SW swell, which is the optimum direction – so the setup’s right. But with such poor surf quality across the board, there’s nothing doing. You’d have better luck on a kiteboard when that wind gets up, especially the Wednesday and Thursday afternoons with strong cross-shore breeze.

Stay patient. It’s a long blank run, but forecasts can change.

Rusty.

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