Richards Bay (Outside) 48 hour detailed Surf Forecast

Lat Long: 28.80° S 32.10° E

Issued: 1 am 13 Sep 2026 (local time)

Forecast update in hr min

Today's Richards Bay (Outside) sea temperature is

21.2°C

Richards Bay (Outside) surf forecast is for near shore open water. Breaking waves will often be smaller at less exposed spots.

Surf Forecasts:

How big are the waves at Richards Bay (Outside) today (13 Sep):

Morning surf: Morning surf (13 Sep, local time) - 3.5ft (1.0m), 9s period with E swell.
Afternoon surf: Afternoon surf (13 Sep, local time) - 2.5ft (0.7m), 18s period with S swell.
Evening surf: Evening surf (13 Sep, local time) - 2.5ft (0.7m), 17s period with S swell.

The current surf forecast for Richards Bay (Outside) at 8AM is: 1.0m 9s primary swell from a East direction and 0.8m 8s secondary swell from a South-southeast direction, 1.0m 5s secondary swell from a Northeast direction (forecast issued at 01:00am September 13). The wind direction is predicted to be cross-offshore and the swell rating is 2.

Time (SAST) & Date	Wave Height	Wave Period
Morning (13 Sep)	3.5ft (1.0m)	9s
Afternoon (13 Sep)	2.5ft (0.7m)	18s
Evening (13 Sep)	2.5ft (0.7m)	17s

Table - waves today at Richards Bay (Outside). (Swell directed towards the surf break)

	Short Range Forecast Moderate rain (total 11mm), heaviest on Tue night. Warm (max 26°C on Sun afternoon, min 19°C on Tue night). Winds decreasing (strong winds from the NE on Mon afternoon, light winds from the W by Tue afternoon).
	Sunday 13								Monday 14								Tuesday 15
	2 AM	5 AM	8 AM	11 AM	2 PM	5 PM	8 PM	11 PM	2 AM	5 AM	8 AM	11 AM	2 PM	5 PM	8 PM	11 PM	2 AM	5 AM	8 AM	11 AM	2 PM	5 PM	8 PM	11 PM
Rating (10 max)	1	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	!	!	1	1	2	0	3	1	2
Swell Height Map See all maps
Wave Height (m) Direction Period (s)	E 9	E 9	E 9	S 19	S 18	S 18	S 17	S 16	S 16	S 16	S 15	S 15	ESE 8	ESE 8	ESE 8	E 8	E 8	E 9	E 9	E 9	E 9	E 9	E 10	E 10
Wave Graph
kJ	157	160	157	192	325	307	290	260	251	242	161	157	234	299	494	670	691	542	637	649	664	556	715	666
Wind (km/h)	NNE	NNE	NNE	NE	ENE	NE	NE	NNE	NNE	NNE	NNE	NNE	NE	NE	NNE	NNE	NNE	N	NNE	NNE	NE	W	NE	N
Wind State on-shore cross-onshore cross-shore cross-offshore off-shore glassy	cross-off	cross-off	cross-off	cross	cross	cross	cross	cross-off	cross-off	cross-off	cross-off	cross-off	cross	cross	cross-off	cross-off	cross-off	cross-off	cross-off	cross-off	cross	cross-off	cross	cross-off
High Tide		4:40AM1.99m				4:57PM2.07m					5:07AM1.93m				5:23PM1.97m				5:32AM1.83m				5:47PM1.83m
Low Tide				10:44AM-0.06m					11:03PM0.03m				11:11AM0.02m				11:29PM0.12m				11:37AM0.13m


	—	5:52	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	5:50	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	5:50	—	—	—	—	—	—
	—	—	—	—	—	5:43	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	5:43	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	5:44	—	—
mm	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	4	7	—
Temp °C	20	19	20	24	26	22	21	21	21	20	21	25	25	24	22	21	21	21	22	25	26	21	19	19
Feels °C	20	19	20	22	23	19	19	19	19	17	17	20	19	18	17	17	17	18	19	22	21	22	18	17
Swell 1 Height (m) Direction Period (s)	E 9	E 9	E 9	SSE 8	S 18	S 18	S 17	S 16	S 16	S 16	S 15	SE 9	ESE 8	ESE 8	ESE 8	E 8	E 8	E 9	E 9	E 9	E 9	E 9	E 10	E 10
kJ	157	160	157	58	325	307	290	260	251	242	161	107	234	299	494	670	691	542	637	649	664	556	715	666
Swell 2 Height (m) Direction Period (s)	SSE 8	SSE 8	SSE 8	S 19	SSE 8	SSE 8	SSE 8	SSE 8	SSE 8	SSE 8	SSE 8	S 15	S 15	S 15	SSW 15	SSW 14	S 14	S 14	S 13	S 12	S 12	S 12	S 12	S 12
kJ	73	70	76	192	58	43	39	40	41	52	37	157	109	109	73	68	62	33	30	28	26	25	25	23
Swell 3 Height (m) Direction Period (s)	S 11	S 11	S 11	S 11	S 11	S 10	E 9	S 10	S 10	—	S 10	S 10	S 18	S 9	S 9	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
kJ	22	22	21	21	21	18	41	18	18	—	8	7	26	7	2	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
Wind waves Height (m) Direction Period (s)	NE 4	NE 5	NE 5	E 9	ENE 9	ENE 6	ENE 6	ENE 6	ENE 6	ENE 6	ENE 7	ENE 7	NE 6	NE 6	NE 6	N 5	N 5	NNE 5	N 5	—	ENE 9	NE 4	ENE 10	N 4
kJ	34	44	50	162	238	148	146	182	195	186	234	216	201	293	239	57	15	92	15	—	958	28	1247	9
Nearest Offshore or Glassy	Richards Bay (Inside) KZN North	Richards Bay (Inside) KZN North	Richards Bay (Inside) KZN North	Reunion Durban/KZN South	Reunion Durban/KZN South	Reunion Durban/KZN South	Guinjata Bay Inhambane	Robberg Garden Route	Robberg Garden Route	Sea Vista Eastern Cape (S)	Noordhoek Eastern Cape (S)	Mtati Eastern Cape (S)	Guinjata Bay Inhambane	Guinjata Bay Inhambane	Periwinkles Eastern Cape - Wild Coast	Mzimpuni Eastern Cape - Wild Coast	Southbroom Durban/KZN South	Thompsons Bay KZN North	Salt Rock KZN North	Reunion Durban/KZN South	Salmon Bay KZN North	Richards Bay (Inside) KZN North	Reunion Durban/KZN South	Mtunzini KZN North
Rating (10 max)	2	2	2	2	2	3	1	5	5	6	2	2	1	2	5	4	4	4	3	3	3	2	3	3
Distance (km)	0	0	0	157	157	157	626	1013	1013	850	845	709	626	626	558	376	291	117	116	157	129	0	157	37
Best forecast wave conditions in KwaZulu-Natal North Coast	Siyayi	Richards Bay (Outside)	Richards Bay (Outside)															Umhlanga	Sodwana		Umhlanga	Richards Bay (Outside)		Umhlanga
Rating (10 max)	2	2	2															4	3		3	3		4
Best forecast wave conditions in South Africa	Gerickes Point Garden Route	Gerickes Point Garden Route	Gerickes Point Garden Route	Paranoia Overberg	Gerickes Point Garden Route	Gerickes Point Garden Route	Gerickes Point Garden Route	Gerickes Point Garden Route	Robberg Garden Route	Sea Vista Eastern Cape (S)	Sea Vista Eastern Cape (S)	Gerickes Point Garden Route	Seal Point Eastern Cape (S)	Dolphin Point Overberg	Queensberry Bay Eastern Cape - Wild Coast	Hole-in-the-Wall Eastern Cape - Wild Coast	Gonubie Reef (The Lefts) Eastern Cape - Wild Coast	Goukamma River Mouth Garden Route	Goukamma River Mouth Garden Route	Yellow sands Point Eastern Cape - Wild Coast	Vleesbaai Overberg	Wedge Durban/KZN South	Gerickes Point Garden Route	Hout Bay Cape Town
Rating (10 max)	5	5	5	4	4	4	4	5	5	6	6	4	4	4	6	9	4	4	4	4	3	4	4	4
Header Global	Papatowai New Zealand	Papatowai New Zealand	Papatowai New Zealand	Papatowai New Zealand	Papatowai New Zealand	Greenmeadows New Zealand	Papatowai New Zealand	Fish Boma South Africa	Injidup Carpark Australia	Cobblestones Australia	Sea Vista South Africa	Cloudbreak Fiji	Gas Bay Australia	Gas Bay Australia	Cintsa West South Africa	Hole-in-the-Wall South Africa	Cobblestones Australia	Cobblestones Australia	Supertubes Australia	Gas Bay Australia	Gas Bay Australia	Saint Leu Reunion	Saint Leu Reunion	Saint Leu Reunion
Rating (10 max)	9	9	8	7	6	5	6	5	5	6	6	5	6	6	6	9	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	6

Map Icons:
Break
Live Wave Height (m)
Live Wind Speed (km/h)
Surf Rating (10 Max)
Ocean Swells (m)
Wind Speed (km/h)

Latest Updates

Ben Mondy

Six Sun-Soaked Summer Surf Spots: Backed by 20 years of Swell and Wind Stats (and with our 20% Summer Subscription Sale)

Ben Mondy

Summer School: The Timeline of The Boardshort

FREE! Surf-Forecast.com widget for your website

The surf report / weather widget below is available to embed on third party websites free of charge and provides a summary of our Richards Bay (Outside) surf forecast. Simply grab the html code snippet that we provide and paste it into your own site. You can choose your preferred language and metric/imperial units for the surf forecast feed to suit users of your site. Click here to get the code.

Richards Bay (Outside) 48 hour detailed Surf Forecast

How big are the waves at Richards Bay (Outside) today (13 Sep):

Short Range Forecast

Latest Updates

Road Testing the new Db Surf Roller Pro

Summer's Short. Life Is Long.

Roadsurfing in the Basque country

Six Sun-Soaked Summer Surf Spots: Backed by 20 years of Swell and Wind Stats (and with our 20% Summer Subscription Sale)

Summer School: The Timeline of The Boardshort

FREE! Surf-Forecast.com widget for your website