Redhead Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, Rusty here. Let’s get into it.

Well, mate, I gotta be straight with you – it’s a pretty grim stretch ahead for the Redhead reef. The next couple of weeks are gonna test your patience. We’ve got a long dry spell with barely a ripple worth paddling for, and it’s not until the very end of the outlook that we finally see a pulse of proper energy. So, grab a coffee, watch the horizon, and wait it out.

First up, from Monday the 14th right through to Sunday the 20th, it’s a whole lot of nothing. We’re looking at tiny, weak dribbles, mostly under 2 ft, with short, choppy periods and hardly any energy behind them. The winds are all over the shop, mostly cross or cross-off, and the water temp is sitting at about 65°F, which is pretty much bang on average for this time of year – nothing unusual there. But honestly, the surf quality is just poor. There’s nothing worth getting wet for.

That quiet run stretches all the way through to the end of September, with a few days around the 22nd showing zero swell at all. It’s a proper flat spell. The wind does swing offshore a few times, like Friday the 18th morning with a light NW breeze, but without any swell to work with, it’s just a clean, empty ocean.

Now, finally, on Monday the 28th of September, things start to change. We’ve got a southeast swell building through the day, reaching about 4 ft by the afternoon, with a period of 12 seconds – that’s a solid groundswell, proper energy behind it. The combined energy jumps right up to 486, which is strong wave energy. The wind is onshore from the south-southeast at 15 mph, so it won’t be glassy, but that kind of power at Redhead, a reef break, should produce some decent, punchy waves. The swell direction from the southeast is a good match for the optimum swell direction here (NE is the optimum), so it’s not a perfect angle, but there’ll be enough to get into it. This is the standout of the whole forecast period, but it’s a long way off and the onshore wind is a bit of a spoiler, so keep an eye on it.

Before that, Wednesday the 23rd and Thursday the 24th offer tiny glimpses of hope. On the 23rd morning, a clean offshore NNW breeze and a 0.3 ft, 13-second swell – glassy but tiny. Then on the 24th morning, we get a glassy, 2 ft swell from the ENE with a 6-second period. It’s clean but small and weak. Not really worth the trip unless you’re desperate.

So, bottom line: it’s a long, flat wait until the very end of September. The 28th is your best bet, but it’s a week and a half away and the winds are iffy. Stick with it – forecasts can change, and this spot doesn’t stay this quiet forever.

Rusty.

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