Fingal Point and Beach Surf Forecast and Surf Report

G’day, I’m Rusty. Let’s talk about what’s happening at Fingal Point and Beach over the next couple of weeks.

Right now, we’ve got nothing worth paddling out for. It’s a rough start, with the first couple of days serving up messy, cross-onshore winds and weak, short-period slop. The water temperature sits at 68.2°, which is about average for this time of year, so no surprises there.

Monday 17 August comes in with a 6.9ft swell from the SE, but the period is a short 7 seconds and the wind is cross-on at 12 mph. It’s choppy, and the combined energy of all swells directed here is moderate at 469, but the surf quality is poor. Not the kind of day you’d get excited about. Tuesday and Wednesday keep that same theme – moderate to strong wave energy (515-646) with 6.6ft to 5.2ft swell, but the conditions are marginal at best. That Wednesday morning, the wind goes cross-shore and the period stretches to 11 seconds, giving the swell a bit more shape, but the 5.2ft is still messy for this spot.

Thursday 20 August is more of the same – 5.2-5.6ft swell, cross-shore or onshore wind, and only marginal conditions. The wave energy drops to around 332-392, so it’s not packing the same punch, but the wind isn’t helping either.

From Friday 21 August through to the end of the month, it’s pretty flat and forgettable. Swell heights stay under 3.9ft, often dropping below 1.6ft, and the periods are short, under 9 seconds. Most of the time you’re looking at poor conditions with cross-onshore or cross-shore breeze. Wave energy dips into the double digits – as low as 11 by the 31st. That’s weak.

Now, there is one brief window that stands out as the best on offer. Tuesday 25 August morning, you’ve got a 2.3ft swell from the NE with a clean, light offshore wind from the WSW. The wind state is described as “clean,” and the conditions are surfable but very ordinary. It's small, but for Fingal Point, that offshore wind is the best we see in the whole forecast. The swell direction matches up nicely with the optimum NE direction. Expect it to be a tiny, glassy little session – crowd levels are “sometimes,” so you might have a bit of company on the peak. The combined energy is low at 73, so it’s more about the clean surface than any kind of power.

However, for the rest of the run, it’s a long, disappointing stretch with very few windows that work. A lot of the time, the bigger swells (4.9ft to 6.9ft) are paired with onshore or cross-onshore wind and short periods under 10 seconds, making for rough, racy lines that aren’t much fun for paddle surfing. If you’ve got a kite, you might find some interest in those windy, bigger days. But for a surfer, this is a tough 16 days. It's one of those periods where you’d keep an eye on the forecast for changes, because it tends not to stay this bad for too long.

Stay patient.

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