North Stradbroke - Pt Lookout Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Righto, let’s get straight into it. I’ve been staring at the charts for Point Lookout and, honestly, the next week and a bit is going to be a proper test of patience. We’ve got a real dry spell on our hands, with only a couple of brief, ordinary windows. Nothing to get too worked up about until we get much further down the track.

First things first – the surf is pretty much non-existent and junky to start. Wednesday the 9th morning is the only session in the first three days that’s even worth a mention, and that’s a bare bones 3ft of east-southeast swell throwing in with a 9-second period. The water’s sitting at 71°, which is right about normal for this time of year – nothing weird happening there. The wind is a gentle offshore from the south-southeast, so it’s clean, but the energy is weak at 111. It’s surfable, but it’s the kind of stuff you paddle out for because you’re keen, not because it’s good.

After that little tease, it’s a proper blank. The swell builds on Thursday the 10th – we’re looking at 7ft to 8ft of southeast windswell, with the energy jumping to 343 and then 759. But don’t get excited. The period is a shocker – only 6 to 8 seconds – and it’s getting chopped around by a near gale. That’s a washing machine, not a surf session. That messy, blown-out stuff hangs around through the weekend and into early next week. The size drops, but the quality doesn’t come back. Lots of junky, cross-off conditions mixing up the water, and the swell is never clean enough to do anything with.

We do get a couple of weird little windows – Tuesday the 15th morning and again Thursday the 17th morning are glassy, with the wind going calm or light west-southwest. But there’s just no swell. We’re scraping the bottom at 3ft to 3ft with a 6 to 7-second period. It’s flat, mate. The energy is down in the 50s and 70s. It’s clean, but there’s nothing to ride.

From there, we slide into another quiet stretch. From the 18th through to the 22nd, it’s tiny – dropping all the way down to 1ft to 2ft. The energy readings are in the teens and thirties, which is about as weak as it gets. There’s a bit of a pulse on the 23rd with southwest or easterly breezes, but it’s still inconsistent and barely breaking. The period does improve to 8-10 seconds, but the swell direction is east-northeast, which isn’t the optimum for Point Lookout. The energy gets up to 292 on Wednesday afternoon, but it’s not enough to save the day.

Now, for the long-range. Around the 23rd and into the 24th, we start seeing something a bit more promising appear on the charts. The swell size comes up to 3ft to 4ft, and the period stretches to 9-10 seconds. The energy is more respectable too, getting into the 200s. But there are caveats. Wednesday the 23rd has a cross-shore wind that’s going to put a bit of texture on it. Thursday the 24th is cleaner but the wind whips up into a strong southeast cross-off. It’s a start, but it’s a long way off and I wouldn’t be cancelling any plans for it yet. It’s promising, but the models could still shift on us.

So, what’s the call? Honestly, there is no standout. There’s no day I’d be racing down to the beach for. The setup stays grovelly and messy. It’s the kind of stretch where you’re better off leaving the board in the car and going for a walk. It tends not to stay this poor for long, so keep an eye out, but for the next ten days or so, the pickings are slim. When it’s this small and blown out, a beach setup like this is more interesting for the kitesurfers than the paddle crew.

Rusty.

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