Hilton Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright folks, Rusty here. Let’s be straight with you – for the next couple of weeks, Hilton is not a place to get excited about. The swell window is just not working for us, and the wind is blowing wrong most of the time. We’ve got a long stretch of flat, messy dribble ahead.

Right now, through the first few days, it’s all small and weak. The swell is barely a wobble, coming in from the WNW at 1ft to 2ft with a short, tired period of 6-7 seconds. The combined energy is pathetic – just 31 (weak energy) on Thursday morning, dropping to 12-18 for the rest of the weekend. Sure, there are a few glassy moments early on Thursday and Saturday mornings, but the waves are so poor you’d be better off having a sleep-in. Thursday afternoon and the rest of the weekend get hammered by a cross-onshore breeze that kills any chance of a clean face.

The whole first week is a write-off. Monday and Tuesday the 14th-15th are more of the same: tiny, weak swell, cross-onshore afternoons, and just a few glassy mornings with nothing to ride. The combined energy stays under 20 (weak). It’s a real bummer.

We start to see a tiny flicker of life on Wednesday the 16th. The morning glass-off gives us a slight bump to 3ft from the WNW with a 7-second period and combined energy of 66 (still weak). The wave comment says “surfable waves but very ordinary conditions,” and with a score of just 1 out of 10, it’s barely a paddle. The wind turns cross-onshore again in the arvo and trashes it.

Thursday the 17th morning is a repeat of that – 3ft, glassy, but the energy is still low at 59. It’s a brief window before the wind messes it up again. The rest of that week into the weekend of the 19th-20th is flat and messy, with the wind howling out of the north at 30-35 km/h, making it lumpy and useless.

The one spark of hope is way out on the horizon. On Thursday the 24th, we get a pulse of groundswell. The morning swell jumps to 4ft from the WNW with a much longer period of 11 seconds. That’s a proper groundswell. The combined energy shoots up to 291 (moderate wave energy). It’s a reef/jetty setup, so it might handle that longer period better than a beach break. The wind is a light cross-shore from the SW, which is clean. The wave comment is still “marginal,” but this is the best we’ll see. The morning of the 24th is the only shot at something half-decent. Friday the 25th morning has a clean cross-offshore breeze and 3ft from the WNW with a 9-second period and energy of 112 (moderate), but it’s a step down from the day before.

So, to sum it up: you’ve got a long, dry spell of 13 days of poor to non-existent surf. The only standout is the morning of Thursday the 24th of September. It’s over a week away, so keep an eye on it, but it’s the only time the swell size, direction, and wind look like they might come together for a few clean waves. Everything else is a no-go.

Rusty.

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