Royal Palms State Beach Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Right, grab a seat. It’s Rusty here, and I’ve been staring at the charts for this stretch, and honestly, it’s a bit of a waiting game. There’s nothing on the cards that’s gonna have you calling in sick for the next week and a half. The first solid window we can even talk about is a good way off, around Thursday, August 20th. Before that, it’s a lot of small, weak, and wonky stuff.

For the first ten days, everything is hovering around that 1ft to 3ft mark, and the energy is just not there. We’re looking at combined swell energy readings mostly in the 100s to low 200s, which is weak to moderate at best, and a lot of that is coming in as short-period windswell. The wind is also a pain, mostly cross-onshore, which is going to chop up anything that tries to form. There’s a hint of a longer period (19 seconds) swell on Friday, August 7th, but it’s still tiny at 1ft and the onshore wind kills it. Honestly, it’s not worth paddling out for.

We do see the energy start to build a little from Thursday, August 14th, with combined energy jumping into the 300s and 400s (432 on the 14th afternoon, 412 on the 15th morning), but the wave height is still only 2ft to 3ft. The period is a bit better, in that 16-18 second range, which is proper groundswell, but the wind is still messing it up. You’ll get some cleaner windows in the mornings, but the afternoons will be chopped out.

Then, on Thursday morning, August 20th, there’s a blip. The swell height reads 4ft, and the combined energy spikes to 320. This is the most surf we’ve seen all period. The catch? The swell direction swings to the west, which is cross to what the reef and point at Royal Palms State Beach really wants (SW). The period is a weak 7 seconds, so it’s a steep, local windswell with no push. With that short period and the cross-onshore wind, it’s going to be a close-out mess. It’s not a surf option, but if you’re into riding a kite, that might be the most interesting the water looks all fortnight.

So, for the standout, there isn’t one. Nothing gets a pass. We’re just waiting for the swell to fill in and the wind to ease off. The good news is that the swell energy does show signs of life in the second week, so it doesn’t tend to stay this poor for long around here. The forecasts are bound to change. Keep your wetsuit ready and your board waxed, because when it comes, it’ll be worth it. This is Rusty, signing off.

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