Dumbea Rights Surf Forecast and Surf Report

G’day, Rusty here. We’ve only got one spot on the radar for this forecast window: Dumbea Rights. It’s a consistent reef break that handles a SSW swell, and that’s exactly what’s coming. The water is sitting around 72°, which is about average for this time of year, so nothing unusual there.

The first few days are pretty quiet. Saturday the 5th has some waist-high swell at 3 ft, but the wind is howling out of the SE at 15–25 mph, making it a scratchy affair. Not worth paddling out for. Sunday the 6th is a bit better – the swell bumps up to nearly 6 ft, but the 6 ft morning has a gentle ESE cross-off breeze giving it a clean look. The combined energy is solid at 1684, which is moderate. Still, the tide and overall conditions are marginal, so it’s not a standout.

Monday the 7th sees a drop back to 4 ft, with light WSW onshore wind. The swell period is a long 14 seconds, which means it’ll be a groundswell with some punch, but the wind direction isn’t doing us any favours. Things stay small and average through to Wednesday the 9th, where the swell lifts to 6 ft but the wind is cross-on from the south. The energy is moderate (941), but it’s choppy.

Now, Saturday the 12th is where it gets interesting. The morning session has a solid 13 ft swell from the SSW, with a 18-second period – that’s a very long-period groundswell. The combined energy is massive at 9973, so there’s serious power in the water. The wind is cross-off from the SE at 18 mph, keeping the waves clean. This is big – over 8 ft, so it’s strictly for experts. The optimum direction is spot-on, and the break is a reef, so that long-period swell will wrap in nicely. This is the true standout of the whole period.

Sunday the 13th holds onto a 10 ft swell, but the wind shifts more cross-shore, so it’s lumpy. Still big and powerful, but not as clean as Saturday. Monday the 14th drops a bit to 8–10 ft, but again, the cross wind chops it up.

We’ve then got a gap from Tuesday the 15th through the rest of the week – the swell stays around 5 ft to 7 ft, but the wind is either strong or messy, and the conditions are rated poor to marginal. Thursday the 18th has a 8 ft swell but it’s accompanied by strong south winds and onshore conditions, making it a write-off.

In the end, if you’re an experienced surfer looking for a real hit, Saturday the 12th morning at Dumbea Rights is your window – a clean, powerful, expert-only session with a long-period SSW groundswell. The rest of the window is either too small, too windy, or just not worth the paddle.

Rusty.

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