Hitherhills Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, this is Rusty, and I’ve gotta give it to you straight. We’re looking at a pretty bleak 16-day stretch for Hitherhills. Honestly, it’s a real struggle to find anything worth paddling out for. We've got a solid two weeks of just flat, messy, or junk conditions before a tiny glimmer of hope pops up right at the very end. Don't get your hopes up for most of it, but let’s break it down.

Right out of the gate, we’ve got next to nothing. From the 16th right through to the evening of the 24th, it’s a total write-off. The swell is tiny, mostly around 0.7 ft to 1 ft, with short, weak periods. The wind is all over the place and almost always cross or onshore, making a mess of the water. The combined wave energy is pathetic, staying well under 100 – it’s like a lake out there. There's one point on the morning of the 18th with a light offshore from the NW, cleaning up a 0.7 ft, 12-second groundswell, but that's a knee-high dribble at best. It’s not surfable. It's just not happening.

We get a little bump of energy around the 20th and 21st, with 5 ft swell and combined energy hitting 195 and 210, but the wind is howling from the NE at 25 mph with a "poor surf conditions" tag. The period is a short, weak 6 seconds, so it’s just a lumpy, blown-out mess. That’s not a surf day; that’s a day to stay on the beach and watch the chaos. It’s not until the morning of the 25th we see a tiny window where the wind switches to a light N cross-off, cleaning up a 3 ft swell. The energy (83) is still weak, and the conditions are "very ordinary", so it’s a last-resort, small-wave grovel session at absolute best.

Then it's more nothing until the very end of the forecast. The real standout, the only one worth getting any kind of excited about, happens on the morning of October 1st.

That Thursday morning we finally get a setup that looks half decent. The wind is coming from the SE at just 3 mph, which leaves the surface glassy – a massive positive after all that wind. We’ve got a 4 ft swell from the SSE with a solid 12-second period. That’s genuine groundswell energy, and the combined energy comes in at a strong 483, the only decent number in the whole run. This is a clean-looking, long-period groundswell. The catch, as always, is that long-period swells can be a bit fat and close out on a beach break like Hitherhills, but it’s the best we’ve got by a mile. Expect clean, lined-up waves for the more experienced crew. This one is a true standout, but it’s over a week away, so don’t book the day off just yet. The water temp is about average for this time of year.

Bottom line: get the kite out or the longboard for the flat days because the paddle surfing is nearly non-existent until that last day. Stay patient.

Rusty.

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