Rat Beach Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Oi, Rusty here. Gotta be straight with ya – the outlook for Rat Beach over the next 16 days is a tough one. There's no real swell to speak of, and the conditions are mostly poor. We're looking at a long stretch of flat-to-weak waves, with only a few mornings offering a chance at a knee-high dribbler.

The surf window kicks off on Friday, the 31st of July, but it's a total write-off. We're talking about 2ft of weak, short-period swell from the W with a cross-shore wind, and the combined energy is a measly 16. It's just not worth paddling out.

Saturday and Sunday, the 1st and 2nd of August, are more of the same. Saturday morning sees a clean-looking 2ft wave from the W (26 energy), but the period is a short 6 seconds, so it won't have any push. Sunday morning is a carbon copy. The afternoons get a little more interesting with a 1ft, 18-second groundswell from the SW on Sunday, but with 80 energy, it's still tiny and weak. The water temp is about average for the time of year, nothing wild.

The best bet, if you can call it that, is from Monday the 3rd through to Wednesday the 5th of August. The mornings are clean with a light cross-offshore breeze, and you'll find 1ft to 1ft of SW swell. The energy climbs from 66 up to 79, and the period is a decent 14-16 seconds. It's surfable, but just barely – it's a real small-wave, longboard-or-funboard kind of situation. The afternoons get chopped up by the wind.

Then we hit a dry spell. From Thursday the 6th of August right through to Tuesday the 11th of August, the conditions are mostly poor, with very little energy. The swell drops to near nothing, with combined energy barely hitting double digits. There's a little pulse on the 10th and 11th in the afternoons, with 1ft to 1ft of SW swell (98 and 87 energy), but the wind is onshore or cross-shore, ruining it.

The second week gets a little more interesting, but not for paddle surfing. Around Wednesday the 12th and Thursday the 13th of August, the combined swell energy jumps to 179 and then 226 – that's moderate energy. The swell height is only 2ft to 2ft from the SW with a 16-second period, but the wind is cross-to-onshore and moderate to fresh. This setup, with a small but energetic swell and choppy onshore wind at a reef break, looks more interesting for kite surfing than paddle surfing. The waves won't be clean enough for a good surf.

Friday the 14th of August has a similar story: 2ft of SW swell (141 energy) but the cross-onshore wind spoils it. The run ends on Saturday the 15th of August with a tiny 1ft, 6-second W swell (11 energy) and cross-shore wind.

Honestly, there's no standout session here. The best of a bad bunch is the clean, tiny mornings from the 3rd to the 5th of August. If you're desperate, you might get a few ankle-biters. But overall, this is a blank run for the area. Keep an eye on the forecast, it can't stay this poor for long.

Rusty.

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