Croyde Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Right then, let’s have a look at what we’ve got here. It’s a bit of a rough start, to be honest. The whole 16-day window is looking pretty grim for a proper surf, with the main culprit being the wind. We’ve got some proper swell coming through, but it’s always getting hammered by onshore or cross-onshore breezes, which just ruins the face of the wave. It’s the kind of forecast that makes you want to double-check your rig.

We kick off on Saturday the 5th of September. The water is sitting at 66°F, which is a very unusual 4°F warmer than what you’d expect for this time of year – feels like a warm bath. But the surf is tiny and messy. A weak 3ft swell from the west with a short 7-second period (combined energy of 164) and a stiff onshore wind mean it’s blown out. A total no-go.

Sunday the 6th offers a tiny 2ft swell from the WSW with a 6-second period, but the wind is cross-off in the morning from the SSE, so it’s clean. The energy is weak (59). It’s pretty small, but for a longboard or a foiler, there might be a sneaky one.

Monday the 7th sees a big jump in size. We get a 6ft swell from the west with an 11-second period in the morning (combined energy 1150), building to a 7ft swell from the WSW with a 13-second period in the afternoon (combined energy 1474). That’s some serious wave energy. But the wind is onshore and strong – 16 to 19 mph from the west. It’ll be a messy, choppy close-out. That size with that wind at a beach break like Croyde is more of a kite-surfing situation than a paddle-surfing one.

The pattern just holds. Tuesday the 8th sees solid 5-6ft swell from the west (10-second period), but still hammered by 16 mph onshore winds. Wednesday the 9th drops to 5ft, but the wind is cross-onshore. Thursday the 10th and Friday the 11th see the wind really howling at 19-22 mph, with lumpy, cross-onshore conditions on 6ft to 7ft swell. Not surfable.

The wave heights drop away after that, and the wind stays a problem. From Saturday the 12th right through to the end of the window on Sunday the 20th, we’re looking at waves under 3ft, and often down to 0.7ft or 1.0ft. The wind is mostly cross-shore or cross-on, cleaning up a bit from the 18th with some cross-off breezes from the NNE and NE, but the swell just isn’t there. The combined energy values are all two-digit weak (e.g., 10, 14, 17). There’s nothing to recommend.

If I had to call a single stand-out… there isn’t one. The only window where you might get a clean little wave is the very early morning of Sunday the 6th, on that tiny cross-off swell. But it’s not a day to get excited about. The gap of good, clean surf is effectively the entire 16 days. This is one of those stretches where it’s better to wax the stick for next week and hope the forecasts change.

Rusty.

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