Rat Beach Surf Forecast and Surf Report

G'day, Rusty here. Look, I'm not gonna sugarcoat it – this outlook for Rat Beach is a tough one. We're looking at a long stretch of very small, weak swell with mostly average to poor conditions. The water is a whopping 4° warmer than normal for this time of year, which is pretty unusual, but it’s not gonna help the waves much.

The first real opportunity is on Sunday, 2nd of August. The afternoon has a tiny 1.0ft of swell from the SW, but it's coming from a long 18-second period, so there's a bit of groundswell energy in the mix. The combined swell energy is weak (58), and the cross-shore wind keeps things a little bumpy. It's not great, but it's something.

Monday the 3rd and Tuesday the 4th offer the same story: 1.0ft to 1ft of SW swell. The mornings will be your best bet with light, clean cross-offshore winds. The swell energy is still weak (57 to 73), and the wave period is long (15-16 seconds), which means the sets will be spaced out, making it a bit easier to paddle. But honestly, it's tiny, and the waves will be very ordinary. Expect to share the water with a few others, as crowds can be a thing here.

The pattern continues through the first week and into the second. Wednesday the 5th, Thursday the 6th, and Friday the 7th all have mornings with clean conditions and a light breeze, but the swell hovers around 1ft to 2ft. The energy is still weak (under 90). Friday afternoon sees the swell collapse to 0.9ft on a 5-second period, making it basically flat.

Then we hit a real dead zone. From Saturday the 8th through to Sunday the 16th of August, the swell is consistently below 2ft, with energy readings dropping to single digits. The wind is often cross or cross-on, making it choppy and messy. There's a few clean mornings in there, but with no swell to speak of, it's just flat and glassy. This is a long gap of over a week with nothing worth getting wet for.

The only glimmer of hope comes right at the tail end of the forecast. On Monday the 17th of August, the morning shows a jump to 3ft of swell from the W, with a short 7-second period. The combined energy is moderate (130), and the wind is light and cross-offshore, making it clean. This is the best wave on offer across the whole 16 days, but it's still ordinary and the swell is short-period windswell. By the afternoon, the wind swings onshore, and it gets messy.

So, the standout? Has to be the morning of Monday, 17th August. It's the only time we see a wave size over 2ft with clean conditions. But it's a long way off, and with a short period, it won't be a classic. If you're desperate, the mornings of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th of August offer the cleanest windows for the smallest of waves. For the rest of the time, the combined low energy, small size, and often bumpy conditions mean the surf is more likely to interest a kite surfer than a paddle surfer.

Rusty.

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