4 Mile Surf Forecast and Surf Report

IMPERIAL

Alright, let’s be straight with you: the next 16 days are a tough watch at 4 Mile. This is a proper advanced point break, exposed to the west, and it’s going to be a long wait for anything decent. The water is sitting at 59°F right now, which is pretty much normal for this time of year, so no surprises there.

The first few days of the outlook are a total write-off. Thursday the 6th through Monday the 10th of August are just poor. Tiny, messy swell with cross-onshore winds mucking it up. You’re looking at combined wave energy that’s mostly weak to moderate (around 160 to 468), with swell heights barely scraping 2ft. Not worth paddling out.

Then we get a bit of a shift. From Tuesday the 11th through to Wednesday the 12th, the wind swings onshore from the south-west and the swell bumps up just a touch. We’re seeing 4ft to 4ft from the west-northwest with a period of 9 seconds. The energy ticks up (374 to 505), but it’s still marginal. The conditions are a bit unknown, but the wind is light. If you’re desperate, Wednesday afternoon might be the best of a bad bunch, scoring a 2 out of 10 in my book. It’s inconsistent, though, so don’t expect much.

The rest of the run from Thursday the 13th through to Friday the 21st of August is a real struggle. The swell drops back down to 2ft to 3ft, and the wind remains cross-onshore or cross-shore for most of it. The combined energy stays in the moderate range (320 to 571), but the quality is poor. The only real highlight, if you can call it that, is the morning of Saturday the 15th of August. A 3ft SSW groundswell with a 16-second period shows up. That long period (16 seconds) is a real groundswell, which means it could wrap in nicely at a point break like this, but it’s only 3ft. The wind is light cross-onshore, so it’d be a clean but small session. That’s the best on offer, and it’s still a marginal call.

Towards the end, from the 19th to the 21st, the swell direction shifts to the WNW with a period of 10 to 12 seconds, and the height gets up to 4ft to 4ft. But the wind is then cross-shore, moderate to brisk, and the comment says “poor surf conditions.” The energy is moderate (417 to 638), but it’s going to be choppy and a mess. Honestly, the whole window is a grim run for 4 Mile. It’s a classic spot, but it’s likely to stay poor for a while. Forecasts can change, but for now, I’d save the petrol.

Rusty.

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