Gold Beach/South Park/Hunter Creek Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Let's get real about the next couple of weeks. I've been staring at this forecast for Gold Beach, and to be honest, it's a bit of a tough stretch for surfers. The conditions are going to be dominated by wind and messy, short-period swell for most of the period. Keep your expectations low for clean waves, but keep your eyes peeled for a couple of interesting windows that could offer something a bit different.

The two-week outlook starts off pretty grim. The swell's coming out of the NW with short 8-second periods, and the wind just won't let up. The wave energy is weak to moderate, mostly in the 300-600 range, and that's just not enough to sort out the surface chop. You'll see plenty of lumpy, cross-shore junk. With wind speeds hanging around 35-45 km/h from the NNW, it's just not worth paddling out.

That pattern holds for the first week. We'll see a small bump in size late Monday afternoon, August 3rd, with around 6 ft of 8-second windswell, but with a strong cross-shore wind, it will be a mess. Thursday, the 6th, is a dead loss, barely a ripple. The best you can say is the break is fairly consistent, but it's consistent at being poor.

Okay, let's look for a silver lining. There is a notable shift in the middle of the second week. Around Friday the 14th, we start seeing some longer-period energy sneaking in. It’s still small, but there's a pulse of 15-second swell showing up. Then, on Saturday the 15th, things might actually get a little interesting. The energy jumps up to the 1000s, and we’ve got a 17-second period swell in the mix. Sure, the wind is still cross-shore and the waves are small, but the quality potential is there. This is the most promising window of the whole forecast, but it's a long-range call, so stay flexible.

That longer period energy has the potential to hold some shape as it lines up for the west-facing sections of Gold Beach, especially through Sunday the 16th and into Monday the 17th. But it's small, and the wind will still be on it, so don't expect a classic day. It's a case of watching the potential, not planning on perfection.

Just as a heads-up, the water temperature is sitting right around average for this time of year, so it won't be a deciding factor in your wetsuit choice. This is all about finding a window where the wind eases off and that longer-period swell has a chance to show its face.

Rusty.

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