Pelican Watch Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, Rusty here. Let’s have a look at what’s cookin’ over the next couple weeks.

Well, I gotta be straight with you – this stretch is a long, flat, frustrating one. We’ve got a massive gap of absolutely nothing worth paddling out for right from the start. From Thursday the 27th of August all the way through to the end of Monday the 1st of September, it’s tiny, weak junk. The swell is stuck around 1 ft to 2 ft, mostly from the ESE or SE, with periods of 7 to 9 seconds – that’s just wind slop, not a wave you can actually ride with any soul. The water temp is sitting at a warm 83°F right now, which is about average for this time of year, so at least that’s comfortable.

You see that combined energy reading? It’s barely hitting double digits – numbers like 33, 42, 53 – that’s weak. No power, no push. A few mornings look glassy, like Saturday the 29th with a northerly breeze at 12 mph and Sunday the 30th with dead calm, but when there’s nothing to surf, glass is just a tease.

The only faint pulse in the whole forecast shows up on Wednesday the 2nd of September. The morning brings a jump to 3 ft swell from the SE, period stretching out to 11 seconds, and the combined energy finally hits a three-digit 142. That’s moderate energy, groundswell flavour. The wind is coming out of the SW at 9 mph, cross-offshore, so the face should be clean. The waves are gonna be a bit more lined up, with longer gaps between sets – makes paddling out easier. For a beginner-friendly spot like Pelican Watch, this 3 ft groundswell is right in the sweet spot. It’s consistent enough here, but don’t expect a crowd-free party – it’s often busy. Still, this is the single true standout of the entire 16-day window for clean, rideable waves.

The rest of the span after that? Wednesday afternoon drops off, and Thursday the 3rd through to Monday the 7th of September stays poor. There’s a weird spike on the 8th of September Tuesday morning – a 2 ft ESE swell but with a very long 16-second period in the morning and 13 seconds in the afternoon. That’s a groundswell, but with an onshore wind, the combined energy of 158 and 162 means chunky but messy. It’ll be breaking straight at a beach setup, so better for a kite session than a paddle. The same goes for Wednesday the 9th of September morning – 2 ft SE swell, 12-second period, 194 combined energy, and a clean cross-off wind from the NNW. That’s the best-looking swell energy in the whole chart, but it’s still a small wave. Worth a look if you’re desperate, but just barely.

For the second week, it’s the same story: small, inconsistent pulses with clean winds but never enough wave height to get excited about. The best bet remains that Wednesday the 2nd of September morning at Pelican Watch.

Rusty.

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