Portreath Harbour Wall Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, Rusty here. Let's have a look at what's on the table for Portreath Harbour Wall over the next couple of weeks. It's a bit of a tough stretch, honestly. We're looking at a solid run of poor conditions for the first 10 days or so, with a mix of cross-shore and cross-onshore winds messing up what little swell arrives. That combined energy reading is often in the moderate range, but it's not doing us any favours with the wind.

From Saturday, the 12th of September, we've got a 4.3ft to 5.6ft W swell pushing in, but that cross SW wind at 15.5 mph is going to chop it right up. The period's only 8 seconds, so it's weak, short-period windswell. The water temperature is about what you'd expect for this time of year, nothing unusual there.

That wind pattern sticks with us through Sunday, Monday, and into the week with a bit of an onshore kick from the NW. By Tuesday, the 15th, we see that onshore NW wind pick up to 18.6 mph, and the swell climbs to 5.2ft to 5.6ft. The combined energy jumps up, but with that fresh breeze and onshore wind, the surf will be blown out and ugly. This setup is really more interesting for kite surfing than paddle surfing – the waves are there, but the quality just isn't for a surfboard.

There's a whisper of hope on Tuesday, the 22nd of September. The swell drops right back to 1.6ft from the WNW with a long period of 12 seconds. The combined energy is way down, but the wind goes light and variable out of the south (6.2 mph) making for clean conditions. It's the first "clean" note we've seen, but that 1.6ft wave is tiny, and the break is noted as "inconsistent" and "rarely breaks", so you might be scratching for a wave. The next couple of days offer similar tiny, clean conditions. The 24th of September morning has a clean, moderate offshore from the SE at 15.5 mph, but with only 1.3ft of swell, you'll be on a longboard, and crowds are "often" here, so expect company for those few little nuggets. After that, it's back to a mix of cross-off and cross-on winds with tiny swell.

All in all, this is a lean outlook. The consistent run of decent swell is ruined by bad wind, and when the wind finally cleans up, the swell is gone. It's one of those spells where the ocean is just not playing ball for the Harbour Wall. For the dedicated longboarder, the clean mornings around the 22nd to the 24th are the only real window, but keep expectations very low.

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