Paignton Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, Rusty here. Let's have a look at what's on the cards for our local patch.

To be blunt, we're looking at a pretty grim run. The first few days are a write-off, and honestly, there's not a single standout session in the whole 16-day window. The pattern is flat, messy, or just plain wrong wind for most of it. There are long gaps here with no real surf to speak of.

We kick off on Saturday, the 8th of August, but it's not worth getting wet. The morning is cloudy with onshore wind from the ESE at 9 mph, and there's no swell. The afternoon has a tiny 1 ft SE windswell with a period of just 3 seconds and weak energy (2). It's poor.

Sunday the 9th offers a bit of a reprieve, but it's tiny. The morning goes glassy with a light NNW breeze at 3 mph, making it clean, but the swell is only 1 ft from the ESE at 4 seconds and energy is almost nothing (3). The afternoon picks up a cross-offshore breeze from the SW at 12 mph, which cleans it up, but the swell is still only 1 ft (energy 4). It's a knee-high dribble.

Monday the 10th is a complete flat calm. No swell at all, just light cross-shore breezes. Not worth a look.

Then we get a pulse of windswell from the 11th through the 13th. The energy builds, but the wind is howling onshore from the E and NE. On Tuesday the 11th, we see 3 ft to 4 ft from the E at 5-6 seconds, with energy hitting 105 on the afternoon. But it's blown out by onshore winds of 16 mph. Wednesday the 12th is similar: 5 ft morning swell at 7 seconds (energy 168) and 4 ft in the afternoon (energy 75), but still onshore at 12 mph. This is messy, choppy, poor surf. For a beginner, 5 ft in these conditions is a handful, and for everyone else, the wind is just ruining it. A beach break under these conditions would be more interesting for kite surfing than paddling.

Thursday the 13th sees the swell drop back to 2 ft and 2 ft, with gentle cross-onshore winds. Still not clean.

From Friday the 14th all the way through to the 18th, it's flat again. No swell at all. Just a few days of clean, offshore winds, but no waves to ride. That's a solid five-day gap of nothing.

We get a tiny blip on Wednesday the 19th of August. A 2 ft swell from the NNE at 4 seconds (energy 18) in the morning with a clean cross-offshore breeze from the NNW at 9 mph. The afternoon goes glassy with a 1 ft swell from the NE. It's clean, but the waves are tiny and weak.

After that, from the 20th onwards, it's back to flat or tiny, onshore, choppy slop. The 23rd is flat and glassy, but with no swell.

The upshot? There's nothing here that screams "go." If you're desperate, the cleanest windows are Sunday morning the 9th and Wednesday afternoon the 19th, but bring your smallest board. The water temp is about average for the time of year, so no surprises there.

The swell just never gets its act together with the wind. It's a tough run, but it won't stay poor forever.

Rusty.

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