Portreath Beach Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright folks, Rusty here. Let’s have a look at the stretch ahead for our region. It’s a bit of a mixed bag, so let’s break it down.

The long-range picture over the next couple of weeks is pretty subdued. We’re looking at a lot of small, wind-affected days, with one or two brief windows where things might line up. Don’t get too excited about the charts just yet, as the first week looks mainly like a write-off for any proper waves.

We kick things off with some onshore slop. Through Tuesday and Wednesday, the swell is up but it’s messy, short-period windswell with cross-onshore breezes making it choppy and uninviting. It might look okay from the beach, but it'll be a battle. The energy is weak to moderate, around the 160 to 289 mark, not worth suiting up for.

Thursday the 20th sees a bump in size with a WNW swell pushing 8ft, but it’s still onshore and the energy meter jumps to 791, showing there’s some push. But with the wind on it, it’s going to be lumpy and hard to manage. Not a day for the faint-hearted.

Things go quiet over the weekend. The swell drops way down to ankle-biters by the 22nd and 23rd, with energy levels crashing to under 100. There’s a glassy moment on Monday the 24th morning, but with only 1ft on offer, it’s a flatty.

Now, the first real spark of hope comes on Tuesday the 25th. The wind swings around to a fresh SSE offshore, which will clean things right up. The swell is there too, 5ft in the morning pushing to 5ft by the afternoon from the W, with a period of 9-10 seconds. The energy is coming up strong at 377 and 441. This is looking like the best bet in the near term. The conditions will be clean, but we’re not at standout levels just yet. Crowds might be a factor as everyone’s been waiting for a wave.

The rest of that week and into the next gets messy again with cross-onshores and building winds, so we’ll have to be patient.

Looking further out, we have a couple of interesting dates. Saturday the 29th shows some size, 6ft to 7ft, from a short-period W/SW swell. The wind is cross-off and the face is clean, but the period is only 7 seconds, meaning it will be inconsistent and lack power. It could be fun for the better crew, but it’s not a classic.

The one to truly circle is Sunday the 30th. The morning looks like a proper window. The wind eases right off to a light SSE cross-off breeze, leaving the surf clean. We’ve got a solid 5ft of W swell with an 8-second period, and the energy reading is a moderate 272. The forecast even says to expect good surf conditions. This is our standout. The winds will be light, the surf will be clean, and there’ll be some fun shapes. It won’t be huge, but it’ll be quality. This is your day to get wet.

After that, the surf gets bigger but the winds turn against us, and by the 1st and 2nd of September, we're looking at big, unruly, and potentially stormy conditions with energy readings over 1000. It’ll be big, over 8ft, so only for experts, and the wind will likely make it a mess.

For the beginner crew, anything over 5ft is going to be challenging, and you'll want to steer clear of the bigger days at the end of the month. This setup looks more like it'll be grunty and demanding.

So, for the next 16 days, we have two realistic windows: the clean-ish Tuesday the 25th, and the better-looking Sunday the 30th. The Sunday is the one. Mark it in the calendar. It’s a bit far out so treat it as promising rather than a certainty, but it’s got the best combo of clean wind and decent swell. The rest is mushy, onshore, or flat. Stay tuned.

Rusty.

Read more