North Stradbroke - Pt Lookout Surf Forecast and Surf Report

G’day, Rusty here with a look at the surf ahead for Point Lookout on North Stradbroke.

Honestly, mate, it’s a grim run right now. We’ve got a solid 16-day window, but the first real glimpse of anything surfable doesn’t show up until Tuesday the 1st of September, and even then it’s barely enough to bother. The whole stretch from now through to Monday the 31st of August is a write-off. Every session has comments labelled "poor surf conditions" with scores of 0/10, so don’t even bother paddling out.

We’re looking at tiny, short-period swell hanging around 2 ft to 4 ft from the ENE, with periods mostly at 7–8 seconds. That’s weak, sloppy windswell, and the wind is almost always cross, cross-on, or onshore. The combined energy figures stay low to moderate, sitting between 85 and 261, but none of that energy translates to quality. There’s one morning – Thursday the 27th of August – that sees a fresh 22 mph SSE offshore, giving clean conditions and a moderate energy reading of 229, but the swell is still only 4 ft with a short 8-second period. It’s clean, but weak and average. Not worth writing home about.

Then on Tuesday the 1st of September, we finally get a tiny window of proper hope. The morning session shows a 3 mph SSE offshore breeze, 3 ft swell from the E, and clean conditions. The combined energy is 164 and the comment finally says "surfable waves but very ordinary conditions" – a score of 1/10. That’s the best we’ve got. The swell direction is ENE, which suits Point Lookout’s optimum E direction reasonably well. But with a period of just 7 seconds, it’s not groundswell, and the wave faces will be short and fat.

After that, it goes back to cross-onshore and onshore winds through the rest of the first week of September, with tiny swell under 3 ft and energy dropping off. By the second week, the energy falls right away into the 40–108 range, with messy onshore winds from the north and northeast. The morning of Sunday the 6th of September has a 12 mph SSE offshore, 2 ft ENE swell, and a score of 1/10, but that’s as good as it gets – tiny, weak, and ordinary.

Water temperature is sitting at 69°F with an anomaly of -0.4°F, so it’s bang on average for this time of year. No surprises there.

There is no standout break in this forecast. The whole 16-day run is poor. For a spot that’s normally fairly consistent, this is a long, flat, frustrating stretch. Sometimes it just goes silent for a while. Forecasts can flip, so keep an eye out, but for now – leave the boards at home.

Rusty.

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