Newcombs Hollow Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, this is Rusty. Let's be straight with you. The 16-day outlook for Newcombs Hollow is a tough one. We're looking at a long stretch of tiny, weak surf with onshore or cross-shore winds that are just not playing ball. It's a real bummer of a period.

The best we can say is that the water temperature is sitting right around average for the time of year at 68°, nothing unusual there.

The first six days, from Monday the 24th of August right through to Saturday the 29th, are a write-off. We're talking ankle-to-knee high slop, with swell heights barely scraping 1 ft to 2 ft. The energy is weak, sitting between 19 and 125 (combined energy). The wind is a constant problem, swinging from cross-off to cross-on, and even when it does go offshore on Tuesday morning the 25th and Friday morning the 28th, there's just no size to work with. It's a painful gap of flat, blown-out junk.

We then get a bit of a tease from Sunday the 30th of August into Tuesday the 1st of September. The swell is still tiny, but we get a couple of windows of clean conditions. Sunday afternoon gives us a light offshore wind with 1 ft of swell, and Tuesday morning the 1st of September is dead glassy with 1 ft of a very long period 15-second groundswell. That long period hints at potential, but the size is just too small to do anything with. The energy is still weak, only reaching 87 (combined energy) on that Tuesday morning.

The second week is where it gets really frustrating. From Wednesday the 2nd of September onwards, the swell does build, but it's a cruel joke. The swell height climbs to 3 ft and even 3 ft, and the combined energy readings get into the moderate range (218 to 415). The problem is it's accompanied by fresh to strong cross-onshore winds from the NE and ENE. This makes for lumpy, messy, choppy surf. The waves will be there, but they'll be a complete battle. The swell direction is also mainly from the E and ESE, which is not the optimum NE direction for this spot. This is a classic case of "looks promising on paper, but a disaster in the water." For a spot that is consistent, this is a heartbreaking run of poor conditions.

The only standout, if you can call it that, is the very end of the period. On Tuesday the 8th of September, we get a clean-looking morning with a cross-off wind from the WSW and a 3 ft swell from the ESE. The energy is moderate (126). It's still not big, but it's the cleanest, most surfable wave on offer in the entire 16 days. It's the best of a bad bunch.

Bottom line: this is a bleak forecast. The setup looks more interesting for kite-surfing than paddle-surfing for most of the second week as the wind and swell clash. Just keep the board in the car and hope the forecasts change.

Rusty.

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