Dreamtime Surf Forecast and Surf Report

G’day, Rusty here. Let’s be straight up – this 16-day outlook for Dreamtime is a tough one. We’ve got a long stretch of really ordinary conditions before anything even starts to look worthwhile. The first solid window doesn’t appear until around the 22nd of August, and even then it’s nothing to write home about. Most of the time, we’re dealing with poor surf, choppy cross-onshore winds, and a lot of mush.

Looking at the first week, the water temperature on the morning of the 13th of August was sitting at 69°F, which is normal for this time of year – it’s about average.

From the 13th through to the 20th of August, it’s a desert. Every session is rated poor, with weak combined swell energy values ranging from 105 to 414 (weak to only just moderate). Swell heights hover between 2 ft and 8 ft, but the direction is all over the shop – mostly SSE to SE, with periods between 6 and 9 seconds. That’s short-period, local wind swell – not much power or shape. The wind is a constant cross-on or onshore, never letting up. The morning of the 17th of August sees the biggest swell at 8 ft (moderate combined energy of 682), but with onshore SE winds at 16 mph, it’s messy and only for the experienced, and even then, it’s not good.

The 21st of August shows a tiny flicker – Friday afternoon has marginal conditions and a score of 1. Swell is 3 ft from the ENE (8 seconds, weak combined energy of 219) with light cross-on wind. Still pretty ordinary.

The first real standout, if we can call it that, is Saturday morning, the 22nd of August. It’s glassy – NNE wind at just 3 mph – and the swell is 3 ft from the ENE with a period of 9 seconds (combined energy 207). That’s clean, small, and the best we’ve seen for over a week. Crowds at Dreamtime are sometimes a thing, so with conditions this rare, you might not be alone. It’s a break that’s fairly consistent and exposed to swell, but this is a window to get a few clean ones. The swell direction (ENE) is not the optimum SE, but the glassy wind is a major positive.

After that, Sunday the 23rd of August has a decent afternoon: 4 ft from the east (10 seconds period, combined energy 321) with clean cross-offshore N winds at 9 mph. That’s another option, but Saturday morning is the pick.

The 24th and 25th of August see the conditions drop back to poor cross-on chop, with swell dropping to 3 ft. Tuesday the 25th morning has a clean window (WSW cross-off 6 mph) with 4 ft from the SSE, but the period is only 7 seconds – weak and short.

From the 26th of August onward, it’s pretty much done. The 26th morning is glassy but only 2 ft (weak energy of 67), and after that it’s cross-on winds and dropping swell down to 1 ft by the 27th. The 28th of August has some longer-period swell (14 seconds from the SE, combined energy 317) but with ferocious 25 mph cross-onshore winds – that’s a kite-surfing setup, not a wave for paddling.

So, the honest call: the best surf on offer in this entire 16-day run is the morning of Saturday the 22nd of August. It’s small, clean, and glassy. The Sunday afternoon on the 23rd is a close second for a bit more size. Everything else is a write-off.

Rusty.

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