Fishermans (Rhiw) Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, Rusty here. Let’s have a look at what’s coming down the line for Fishermans (Rhiw).

Straight up, I’m not gonna sugarcoat it: the next couple of weeks look pretty grim for a paddle. We’ve got a long, drawn-out stretch of small, choppy, or onshore slop with very little to get excited about. The first real block of surfable days is a total blank, so don’t even bother waxing up until we get past the first week of September. The water’s sitting at about 65°, which is a good 5° warmer than normal for this time of year – that’s a pretty notable anomaly and feels more like a late summer bath.

Let’s run through it. From Friday the 28th of August right through to the morning of Tuesday the 8th of September, it’s a dead loss. Swell heights barely scrape past 3 ft on most days, and when they do get a pulse, the wind is either howling onshore or cross-onshore, turning any hope into a frothy mess. The combined energy is weak, reading single to low double digits (7 to 134) most of that time. The best you can say about Saturday the 29th afternoon is a clean offshore breeze, but the swell is a pathetic 2 ft – not worth getting wet for.

There’s a little spike around Wednesday the 2nd of September afternoon, with a 7 ft SW swell, but the wind is a fresh onshore from the SSW, hammering it. That’s a strong wave energy reading of 295, but it’s a blown-out, lumpy mess. Thursday the 3rd is even worse – a near gale from the SW hits 31 mph with a 6 ft swell. That’s not a surf day; that’s a day to watch the chaos from the cliff. For anyone thinking of kiting, that setup might actually have some appeal.

The only faint glimmer in the whole run arrives on Saturday the 12th of September. We get a 7 ft SW swell with some decent energy (407), and the wind swings NW to a clean cross-off in the afternoon. That’s the standout. It’s still a long way off, so don’t book the trip yet – forecasts can wobble – but if it holds, it’s the one session where Fishermans might actually turn it on. For experts only at that size, and it’s a reef, so it’ll handle that groundswell better than a beach break. But the rest of the week after that is a write-off again.

So, bottom line: the 16-day window is mostly a bust for paddle surfing. A blank run like this is unusual but not unheard of here. It tends not to stay this poor for long, and forecasts can change, but for now, I’d be waiting for that Saturday the 12th afternoon window and keeping my fingers crossed.

Rusty.

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