Rock Wave Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, Rusty here. Let’s have a look at what Rock Wave has in store for us over the next couple of weeks.

It’s a slow start, folks. The first few days are looking pretty average, with only marginal surf and a lot of cross-shore wind mucking things up. Nothing worth getting excited about just yet.

Sunday the 16th is a write-off – small, weak swell with a messy cross breeze. Not worth paddling out. The water is a chilly 63°, which is a solid 5° colder than normal for this time of year, so you’ll want a decent wetsuit.

We get a slight pulse of longer-period swell on Monday the 17th, but it’s still on the small side, around chest-high, and the cross-shore wind isn’t helping. The conditions are still marginal. This pattern holds into Tuesday the 18th, with the swell dropping off.

Wednesday the 19th of August is where things start looking better. The morning still has a cross breeze, but the swell is starting to show some proper energy with a 13-second period from the SSW. The real standout is Wednesday afternoon: the wind goes glassy, the swell is a clean 4 ft, and the combined energy is a solid 558 – that’s moderate wave energy. This is the first true window of quality surf. The break faces south, and we’ve got a 4 ft SSW groundswell with a long period of 13 seconds. That’ll set up some nice, lined-up waves at this reef.

Thursday the 20th gets messy again with a cross-onshore wind and a jump in size to 5 ft, but the wind is poor. Friday the 21st has the same issue – moderate cross-shore winds and overhead-plus swell making things choppy. The energy is strong (943 on Friday morning), but the wind is just not playing ball.

Saturday the 22nd and Sunday the 23rd are a mess. Strong cross-shore winds and a huge jump in swell on the Sunday – we’re talking 12 ft with a staggering 4606 combined energy – but it’s a lumpy, cross-shore nightmare. That kind of size with that wind is more for kite surfers than paddle surfers.

Monday the 24th of August still has a big, powerful 8 ft S groundswell with a very long 16-second period. The energy is well into the thousands, but the wind is cross-shore again. This is expert-only territory – massive, powerful, and won’t be easy to paddle into.

Things settle right down after that. From Tuesday the 25th onward, the swell drops back to smaller, more manageable stuff. Wednesday the 26th is worth a mention: we’ve got glassy conditions, a tiny but super-long period swell (21 seconds!), and clean lines. The combined energy is still moderate (1072), but the wind is dead calm. For experienced surfers, it’ll be a dream – clean, long-period waves rolling in. The crowd factor at Rock Wave can be a thing sometimes, so if you can get it alone, it’ll be magic.

From there it’s mostly small, weak, and cross-shore again for the rest of the run into early September. Not much happening.

Best call of the whole outlook? Hit Wednesday the 19th of August in the afternoon – that glassy session with a clean 4 ft SSW swell is the pick of the bunch.

Rusty.

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