8th Street Jetty Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Righto, let’s have a look at what’s on the table for the next couple of weeks at 8th Street Jetty.

To be straight up with ya, this is a tough outlook. The whole 16-day window is a bit of a write-off for any kind of decent surf. We’re looking at tiny, gutless swell and messy conditions more often than not.

We’ve got a stretch from now, Sunday the 16th of August, right through to Monday the 31st of August, and there’s just nothing that’s going to get the blood pumping. The swell never climbs above 3ft, and even that tiny bump late in the month is paired with a cross-onshore wind. The wave energy is weak, never even cracking the 100 mark (72 at best on the morning of the 27th).

The water’s sitting at 77°F with a positive anomaly of 3°F, so a touch warmer than normal for this time of year, which is nice if you’re having a swim, but it’s not helping the waves.

For the first week, we’re looking at tiny, short-period slop. A few windows of clean conditions pop up—like the glassy morning of Wednesday the 19th—but with swell heights barely scraping 1ft and combined energy down around 29, it’s not worth paddling out for. The wind swings around a lot, often cross or cross-on, and even when it’s offshore, the swell is just too small to do anything with.

Moving into the second week, things don’t improve. Thursday the 27th morning has a bit more energy (72) and clean conditions with a cross-offshore from the N, but the swell is still only 1ft from the SE. A few days later, Monday the 31st, it’s more of the same: tiny, short-period swell with a lumpy cross-shore chop.

Honestly, if you’re a surfer, you’d be better off finding something else to do. This is a long, quiet run. The setup is more interesting for a kite surfer than a paddle surfer, with that consistent cross-to-cross-on wind and enough small chop to get a foil going, but for wave riding? Forget it.

Rusty.

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