Gwithian Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright folks, Rusty here. Let’s be straight with you – this outlook for the next 16 days is a tough one. I’ve been looking at what’s coming our way at Gwithian, and honestly, it’s a bit of a heartbreaking run. There are no standout days in the traditional sense, but let’s walk through it day by day.

Wednesday, August 12 is our only sniff of something rideable. The morning starts off clean with a light ESE wind blowing offshore, leaving the waves pretty tidy. You’re looking at a small 3 ft swell rolling in from the west with a 10-second period. The overall energy is weak, just 127, so you won’t be getting any power-houses, but for a beginner-friendly spot like this, it’s actually okay. The afternoon turns a bit cross-offshore, still clean enough, with the swell nudging up to 3 ft. If you’re free, that’s the session to paddle out.

From Thursday, August 13 right through to Tuesday, August 27, it’s a grim stretch. The wind turns onshore or cross-onshore almost every day, and the waves get messy. There are a few pulses of swell – like a 4 ft on the 13th, and a bigger 6 ft on Wednesday, August 19, but the wind is just howling onshore. That 6 ft from the WNW has a combined energy of 848, which is moderate, but it’s blown out. Then on Thursday, August 20, we get a proper 10 ft swell from the NW (1388 energy), but with strong cross-onshore winds at 45 km/h, the surface will be a mess. That one’s for experts only, and even then, it’ll be challenging – the setup looks more interesting for kite surfing than paddle surfing.

The swell period is all over the place. Sometimes short at 5-8 seconds, which gives weak, lumpy waves. Once in a while we get a longer 10 or 11-second swell, but the wind never cooperates. The water temperature? It’s about average for the time of year, nothing weird to report.

We hit a low point on Monday, August 17 with barely any waves – 0.3 ft from the SW, 29 energy. Just a flat, choppy lake.

So here’s the bottom line: if you want to surf Gwithian in this 16-day window, your only real shot is Wednesday, August 12. After that, it's a two-week blank run of onshore wind and poor conditions. Keep an eye on the forecasts, because it tends not to stay this poor for long, but right now, I’d say save the wax for another week.

Rusty.

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