Drakes Estero Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright folks, Rusty here. Let's have a look at what Drakes Estero has in store for us over the next couple of weeks.

Right now, the pattern isn't offering much to get excited about. We kick off with some small, wobbly surf from the WNW through Tuesday and Wednesday. It's small, poor quality, and the wind is either on it or cross, just messing things up. Not worth paddling out for.

Things start to turn around on Thursday afternoon. That's when we see the wind shift to a clean, cross-off breeze from the WNW. The swell is still a modest 4ft from the WNW with a 9-second period, but the clean conditions make it the first real look of the week. The combined wave energy sits at 435 (moderate), so there is some push behind it.

Now, the standout window looks to be Saturday the 15th morning through Monday the 17th morning. Saturday morning brings a clean 3ft SW groundswell with a nice 17-second period. Combined energy is 473 (moderate). That's some proper, long-period groundswell. The wind is a light cross-off, so the wave faces should be clean. Because it's such a long period swell, it might be a little tricky at a beach setup like Drakes Estero – it could break a bit straight, but with the clean conditions, it's worth a look.

But the real highlight is Sunday the 16th morning. The swell jumps to 3ft from the SW, still with a long 16-second period, and the wind is light and cross-off. The combined energy hits 553 (moderate-strong). Conditions are clean, and the energy is there. This is the pick of the forecast. It's a longer swell, so it'll have good shape and power, and the lighter wind will make paddling out a lot easier than the afternoons, which get blown out by a NW breeze on Sunday.

After Monday morning, the quality dips a bit, with smaller swells and messy afternoons. There are a few more windows with clean cross-off winds, like Thursday the 20th morning and Friday the 21st morning, with 3ft WNW swell, but the energy is lower. The final week looks very inconsistent and mostly blown out by fresh NW winds, with only tiny bits of swell. The 22nd afternoon through the 25th sees a big drop-off, with very weak energy (171 - 163) and poor or ordinary conditions. The pattern just fades out.

There will be gaps of a few days where there's nothing worth mentioning, especially from the 22nd afternoon onwards.

Water temperature is typical for this time of year, nothing unusual to report.

So, for the keen, aim for Sunday morning the 16th of August at Drakes Estero. If you miss that, Saturday morning the 15th or Monday morning the 17th are your next best bets.

Rusty, signing off.

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