Rat Beach Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Right then, folks. Rusty here. We’ve got a pretty bleak picture for the next couple of weeks. Let's be honest, it's a lean run.

The swell energy is just not there. The waves are tiny, the period’s short, and the wind isn't doing us any favours. We’re looking at a long stretch of flat, weak conditions. There’s a gap of about a week with nothing really worth paddling out for, from now until early August. The only name on the card is Rat Beach, a reef setup that’s inconsistent and only for beginners.

Tuesday morning, 28 July, is the first offering. We’ve got a small 2ft swell from the west, with a short 6-second period. The wind is offshore from the south-southeast at 9 mph, which is a positive, but the combined swell energy is a feeble 26, so it’s weak. The water is a very unusual 73°, which is 8° warmer than normal for this time of year. That’s a real talking point, but it doesn’t make the surf any better.

The rest of the week is much of the same. The swell stays small, between 1.0ft and 2ft, with that same short, weak west-southwest pulse. The wind flips around between light offshore and cross-off for the mornings, keeping things clean, but the waves just don’t have any push. The afternoons get a bit choppy with onshore winds.

We get a slight uptick around Tuesday, 4 August. The morning shows a 1ft swell from the southwest, but the period finally stretches out to 15 seconds. The combined energy is 76, still weak, but it’s a groundswell. The wind is light and cross-off, so it’s clean. It’s surfable, but very ordinary. That long period means the sets will be more powerful but spaced out, and for a reef, it might be okay, but the size is tiny.

The swell picks up a bit more energy on Tuesday, 11 August afternoon. The wave height is still only 2ft, but the period is 18 seconds and the combined energy hits 200, which is moderate. The problem is the wind is a strong cross-onshore from the west at 16 mph, which will chop it up badly. The next morning, Wednesday, 12 August, the swell is 2ft from the southwest with a 18-second period and 185 energy, but again, the wind is a messy cross-shore. It’s a tease.

Honestly, there’s no standout here. The best of a bad lot would be the mornings with the light offshore winds, like Tuesday, 4 August morning, but you’re still surfing tiny, weak waves. It’s a tough outlook.

Rusty.

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