New Brighton Beach Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Right folks, Rusty here. We’ve got a bit of a patience test on our hands with New Brighton Beach over the next 16 days. The overall pattern is one of long, flat spells broken only by a few brief windows of tiny, surfable waves. There’s no real standout surf in the near future, and the best we can hope for are a couple of mornings with clean, small waves that won’t exactly have you sprinting for the water.

The immediate outlook is grim, with the first surfable recommendation not kicking in until the very end of this coming week. You’re looking at a big gap from now all the way through the weekend and into early next week with nothing but poor surf conditions or straight-up flat spells.

The first bit of hope comes on Thursday, 28 August. The swell is coming from the NNE at 8ft with a short period of 8 seconds. The combined swell energy is very strong at 1125, but the conditions are described as poor with a moderate cross-onshore wind making it choppy. This is a big, messy, short-period swell – it’s not going to be a clean ride and is really only for experienced surfers if they’re desperate.

After that, we get a few small windows. The most notable of the whole lot is on Saturday, 29 August. The morning offers 2ft of swell from the E (8 seconds) with a clean cross-offshore wind from the SW at 9 mph. The combined energy is moderate at 113. It’s not big, but it’s clean. The afternoon follows with 1ft swell from the ESE (16 seconds, a long period) and the same clean cross-off wind, with energy at 188. This is a classic long-period groundswell and will be slow, fat, and tricky on a beach break, but if you’re looking for a quiet, clean paddle, this is your best bet. Crowds can be an issue at New Brighton sometimes, but with conditions this small it might not be a worry.

Moving into the second week, we see another clean option on Monday, 1 September, with a glassy 2ft from the SE (9 seconds) in the morning – energy is moderate at 153. Again, small but clean. After that, the forecast trails off into tiny, onshore slop with no further recommendations.

Real talk: the surf is small and inconsistent for the entire 16-day window. The water temp is currently 50°F, about 1°F warmer than average for this time of year, so pretty much what you'd expect for a cold winter paddle. If you’re itching to get wet, Saturday 29 August and Monday 1 September mornings are your only real chances for a clean, small-wave session, but keep your expectations in check. For the rest, it’s a kite-surfing kind of pattern with the bigger, windblown swells later on.

That’s the long and short of it.

Rusty.

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