Mainside Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, Rusty here. Honestly, this stretch of coast is looking pretty flat and uninspiring for the next couple of weeks. We’ve got a long run of small, weak swell with iffy winds, so don’t get your hopes up for any hero sessions.

The first bit of surfable action doesn’t show up until Saturday morning, July 18th, at Mainside. It’s a reef setup, so it needs a bit of love to work. The water’s sitting at 82°, which is a touch colder than what we’d usually expect for this time of year—about 3°F off, so you’ll feel that chill. The swell is tiny, only 2ft from the west, with a pretty short 8-second period, and the combined energy is just 61 (weak). The wind is cross-onshore, so it’s gonna be choppy. The score reflects that—it’s pretty poor. Sunday morning, the 19th, cleans up a bit with a light southerly cross-off wind, making it glassy, but the swell is still only 3ft and weak. It’s surfable, but only just.

From Sunday afternoon right through until the morning of Tuesday, July 28th, it’s a bleak stretch. The swell drops to 2ft, then 1.0ft, and down to 0.7ft. The wind is mostly cross or onshore, and the energy readings are all in the single or low double digits—weak to very weak. You’d be better off staying home.

Things look like they might get a tiny bit more interesting later in the month, but it’s a long way off. On Wednesday, July 29th, the swell jumps to 4ft from the east, with a solid 13-second period, and the combined energy shoots up to 602 (strong wave energy). That’s a proper groundswell at Mainside. But the wind is a moderate cross-onshore from the west, so it’s going to be messy. The period is long enough to shape up, but that wind will ruin it for paddle surfing. With that kind of cross-onshore wind and a beach/reef setup, it honestly looks more interesting for kite surfing than a clean paddle session. The following afternoon on the 30th, the swell drops off again.

There’s a tiny blip of energy right at the very end of the forecast—on Sunday afternoon, August 2nd, we see a 0.7ft wave from the east-northeast with an 18-second period. That’s a very long period swell, which can offer some drawn-out lines at a reef like Mainside, but the combined energy is only 31 (weak), and it’s a light cross-onshore. It’s a long-range promise, so don’t bank on it.

Overall, there’s no standout day here. The best of a bad bunch is probably Sunday morning, July 19th, for the cleanest conditions, but it’s on tiny swell. The big energy on July 29th is a tease with the wrong wind. It’s a flat spell, and it’s normal for this area to have these blank runs.

Rusty.

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