Narrabeen-Alley Rights Surf Forecast and Surf Report

G’day, Rusty here. Let’s be straight with you: the next week and a half is going to be a real test of patience. There’s a gap at the start with basically nothing rideable. We’re looking at Monday the 14th and Tuesday the 15th with tiny, short-period slop and cross-shore winds. Not worth paddling out for. The energy is weak, with readings around 131 and 99, and the swell direction is all over the place. It’s a flat spell, plain and simple.

The middle of the week doesn’t get much better. Wednesday the 16th through to the 22nd is mostly blown-out or minuscule. A couple of mornings have that glassy feel, like Friday the 18th morning, but there’s no swell to push it. The energy readings drop to single digits and low double digits. It’s just flat. You’d be better off checking the tides or working on your car. There’s a slight bump on Monday the 21st afternoon, but it’s onshore SSE and messy, and then Tuesday the 22nd morning picks up a bit of short-period ESE swell to 6ft, but it’s still cross-shore and lumpy. Not worth the paddle.

Now, here’s where it gets interesting. The real window opens up mid-week, about nine days out. We’ve got a run from Wednesday the 23rd through to Monday the 28th that actually has some push. The energy starts to build properly – Wednesday the 23rd morning has a combined energy of 286, and that jumps up to a solid 496 by the afternoon. The swell is coming from the ENE, with a period of 6-7 seconds. Short period, so it’ll be a bit more walled-up, but there’s real size on it. The wind is the issue for a lot of it, though. Wednesday afternoon is cross-shore and messy, with a 20 km/h NE breeze chopping it up.

The standout, the one I’d be circling on the calendar, is the morning of Thursday the 24th. We’ve got a clean, light NNE cross-offshore wind at 10 km/h, with a 6ft ENE swell ticking over. The energy is a solid 297. This is the cleanest, most rideable window in the whole run. The break itself, Narrabeen-Alley Rights (Northern Beaches), is a beach/sandbar set-up that’s very consistent and can handle this direction well. Crowds are often a factor here, so get in early. The water temp is 64°F, which is about average for this time of year, so a good summer suit is fine.

After that, Saturday the 26th morning looks like the other real gem. A 5ft ENE swell with a gentle NNE cross-offshore breeze, clean as a whistle. Energy is at 281. It’s a touch smaller than Thursday, but still plenty of fun. The Arvo gets blown out by a 30 km/h NE breeze, so get on it early.

As we roll into the second week, it gets less certain, but there’s something on the radar. The morning of Sunday the 27th shows a bigger 7ft SSE groundswell, but it’s short-period at 7 seconds. The wind is clean and cross-offshore, though. That’s a promising, if less certain, option. And then Monday the 28th morning, we see a proper offshore NW wind, 15 km/h, with a 5ft E swell. That could be really clean, but again, it’s a week-plus out, so treat it as a promising maybe.

For the beginners out there, watch out. Once the swell gets past 5ft, like on Wednesday the 23rd afternoon, Thursday the 24th, and that 7ft Sunday swell, it’s getting too serious for you. And that 7ft is definitely expert territory.

So, overall, there’s a long, flat, frustrating start, but hang in there. The 24th and 26th mornings are your best bets for a proper surf. Don’t waste your energy on the slop before that. Stay patient, and the ocean will come around.

Rusty.

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