Little Austi and Main Beach Surf Forecast and Surf Report

G’day, Rusty here. Look, I’ve gotta be straight with you – the next 16 days at Little Austi and Main Beach are looking pretty grim for the most part. We’ve got a little pulse of surf kicking off Friday morning, but then it’s a long, flat, and lackluster stretch until we get a sniff of something bigger in early September. Let’s break it down.

Friday 28 August morning is actually your best bet for a surf this whole first week. You’ve got a 5ft swell coming from the SSE with an 11-second period, giving a moderate 451 (combined energy) in the afternoon after a bigger 600 in the morning. It’s a beach and reef setup, fairly consistent, and the water temp is sitting right on 64°, which is about average for the time of year. The wind early is a light 3 mph from the SSW – it’s cross-on, so there’ll be a few bumps, but it’s manageable. Friday afternoon turns to junk though, with a 12 mph SSE cross-on wind chopping it right up. That’s your best wave, and to be honest, it’s only just surfable.

From Saturday 29 August morning, the swell drops to 4ft, then 2ft on Sunday, and by Monday 31 August it’s flat – zero swell energy for a couple of days. We’ve got a real dry spell here. The wind goes offshore or glassy from Tuesday 1 September through Thursday 3 September, but the swell is tiny – barely 1ft with low energy (around 27 to 53). It’s clean, but there’s nothing to ride. This stretch is a ghost town for surf.

Now, there is a bit of a late flare-up on Tuesday 8 September afternoon. A new SSE swell pushes in at 7ft with an 11-second period, and the combined energy jumps to 1154 – that’s moderate-strong energy. The wind is a gentle 9 mph cross-shore from the NE, so it’s a little choppy, but it’s a proper size. However, at 7ft, this is expert-only territory, especially on a beach and reef break where the long-period groundswell (over 10 seconds) can make it dumpy. It’s also over a week out, so treat it as promising but not locked in. The morning of Wednesday 9 September hangs in there with 4ft, but then it fades fast again.

Honestly, ignore the rest of September. You get a few mornings with offshore winds (like 12 September morning, clean with a 1ft SSE swell at a long 13 seconds, but the energy is only 75 – not enough to do anything with). Crowds are “sometimes” at this break, but there’s no need to worry about that because there’s barely any surf.

If you’re desperate, Friday 28 August morning is your only real chance, and even then it’s marginal. For the rest of the outlook, you’re better off checking the forecast again in a week – this blank run is pretty normal for the area when the swell window shuts down.

Rusty.

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