Packery Channel Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright folks, Rusty here. Let’s be real about the next couple of weeks at the coast. I’ve been staring at the charts and there’s just not much to get excited about for a while. We’re looking at a long stretch of tiny, weak, and messy surf. The breakwater at Packery Channel is the only spot on the radar, and even then, it’s a long wait for anything that’s actually rideable.

Right now and for the next several days, we’re stuck in a funk. From Sunday, the 30th of August, all the way through to the end of the first week of September, the swell is tiny – we’re talking ankle-snappers at 0.7 ft to 3 ft. The wind is cross-onshore or onshore, mixing everything up into a choppy mess. The combined wave energy is in the weak range, mostly sitting between 8 and 29 (just a whisper of energy). The water temperature is about average for this time of year, so no wetsuit drama, but you’ll be bobbing around waiting for a ripple that never comes. It’s a flat spell, plain and simple.

We start to see a little bump in size around Wednesday, the 9th of September. The swell picks up to 4 ft in the morning, coming from the SSE with a short, weak period of 5 seconds. The energy climbs to 90 (moderate wave energy), but the wind is still a moderate cross-onshore from the SSE at 12 mph, so it’s choppy. Not great, but it’s the first sign of life. By the afternoon, the swell hits 5 ft with a period of 6 seconds, and the energy jumps to 151 (moderate wave energy). That’s the biggest swell of the whole forecast, but the wind goes fresh cross-onshore at 22 mph, absolutely ruining any chance of a clean wave. This setup is more interesting for kite surfing than paddle surfing – it’s lumpy, bumpy, and blown out.

Thursday the 10th and Friday the 11th of September continue with similar conditions: swell around 3 ft to 4 ft, but the wind stays fresh or moderate and cross-onshore. The energy drops back down through the 80s and 50s. The water is still a mess. After that, it fades back to tiny, onshore junk from the 12th of September onwards.

Honestly, there is not one standout session in the whole 16-day window. The only break on offer is Packery Channel, and it’s rated as a beginner spot with a breakwater setup. It’s always crowded, and the swell direction is from the SE, which is the optimum for it, but the wind never cooperates. If you’re desperate, the morning of Wednesday the 9th of September might give you a few knee-high, lumpy waves, but that’s the best of a bad bunch. This is a park-the-board-and-wait kind of forecast.

Rusty.

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