East Runton Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, Rusty here. Let’s be real about what’s on the table for the next couple of weeks.

Right now, we are scrapping the barrel. There simply isn’t any surf worth paddling out for in this whole forecast window. We’re looking at a blank run that stretches almost the entire 16 days, and that’s just the way the chips have fallen here.

Your only real option to even look at is East Runton. It’s a beginner-friendly beach break that is fairly exposed, so it catches a bit of everything. The first chance of anything rideable shows up on the morning of Saturday the 5th. The swell will be 5 ft from the NW, but it’s a weak, short-period windswell with a combined energy of only 129, and the wind is a lumpy cross-shore at 19 mph. It will be a messy, choppy mess. If you are an expert on a kite, it might look interesting, but for a paddle board, it’s a hard pass. That afternoon the swell drops, and we are back to nothing.

The water temperature is sitting around 66°, which is about 4° warmer than usual for this time of year—very unusual, feels like a warm bath. That’s about the only highlight.

Through the first week, there are bumpy little pulses, but the wind never cooperates with clean conditions, and the waves barely get to a knee-high dribble. The closest we get to a clean window is Sunday the 6th with a light offshore, but the swell is only 2 ft. You might catch a ripple, but you’d be working for it.

We get a slightly bigger bump on the 9th – 6 ft on Wednesday morning – but the period is just 5 seconds. That’s a steep, bumpy wall of whitewater, not a wave. The combined energy hits 176, but again, the wind is a fresh cross-offshore. For a beach break here, short-period cross-offshore is still a lumpy, hard-to-read wave.

After that, we dry up completely. From the 10th all the way through to the 17th, we are looking at swell under 2 ft, often 0.3 ft or flat, with nothing but "poor surf conditions" written all over it. There is a brief glassy moment on the 12th afternoon, but the swell is a pathetic 1 ft. You could sit on a longboard and barely rock.

To sum it up: there are no standouts, no good options. This is one of those quiet spells where you are better off waxing your board at home and waiting for a proper groundswell. Forecasts change, but right now, it’s dead.

Rusty.

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