Friendly Beaches Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, mates, Rusty here. Let's cut through the noise and get straight to it. We’ve got a 16-day window for Friendly Beaches, and it’s a bit of a mixed bag, to be honest. The first few days are looking pretty marginal, but there are a couple of windows where it could get real interesting.

The opening stretch, starting this Friday the 31st, is pretty quiet. We're looking at a small, weak 3ft SSE swell with a short 8-second period. The wind is light but cross-onshore, which is going to leave things a bit lumpy. Water temp is sitting at 57°, which is a touch warmer than normal for this time of year, so that's a small bonus. Honestly, for the first couple of days, you might be better off finding something else to do.

Saturday the 1st and Sunday the 2nd see things clean up a bit. The wind swings around to a cross-offshore, and there’s a slightly better quality SE swell pushing in, with the period stretching out to 12 seconds. That longer period gives the waves a bit more push. The energy is moderate, around 278 to 407 on the dial. It’s still small – around 3ft – so it’s not going to be epic, but the conditions will be clean and the lines will be more defined. Sunday morning looks particularly nice with a glassy surface on that 3ft SE swell.

Monday the 3rd is a bit of a write-off with a short-period, weak NNE windswell and cross-shore winds messing things up. Not worth the paddle. Then Tuesday the 4th, the ocean wakes up. A solid S groundswell fills in, jumping to 8ft by the morning. The energy readings go through the roof, hitting 586. This looks very promising. But, and it’s a big but, as the day wears on, things get too big and the wind picks up. By the afternoon, it’s a 10ft beast with 25 km/h cross-winds and strong energy at 1037. That’s well over the 8ft mark, so it’s expert-only territory and likely a washing machine. It might be more interesting for the kite crew on a beach setup like this.

Wednesday the 5th through Thursday the 6th will have the swell easing back down to the 5ft to 7ft range, with clean conditions under cross-offshore winds. Still, the scores aren't huge, so it's not a standout.

Now, the real standout is Monday the 10th. After a few pretty bleak days, a massive NNE swell lights up the charts. The morning shows a huge 12ft swell with an insane energy reading of 1516. That is a very strong pulse. The wind is cross-offshore, but that size is just too much for this break – it’s well over the expert threshold. If you’re a pro, this could be on, but for most of us, it’s a day to watch from the shore. The afternoon should ease down to a more manageable 7ft, still with good energy at 725 and clean winds, which shows a much better window for a serious session.

After that, things taper off again. The middle of the second week, from the 11th to the 13th, is back to smaller, less interesting surf, with a mix of weak swell and some windy days. The 12th also has a big 30 km/h SW wind to deal with.

The final period, around the 14th and 15th, shows another pulse of N swells. The 15th locks in a solid 7ft N swell with glassy conditions in the morning, which looks like a great clean option with that light offshore wind. But by the afternoon on the 15th, it’s another 10ft NNE bomb with strong energy at 886, which again goes into that "too big for this break" category.

So, to wrap it up: there are two real windows to focus on. The first is Tuesday the 4th, but only for experts due to size. The second, and the best all-round option, is the afternoon of Monday the 10th, when the swell is still solid but clean and a little more forgiving. The very end of the period, on the morning of the 15th, also looks like a worthy session. Everything else in between is a story of small waves and average conditions.

Rusty out.

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