Royal Palms State Beach Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright folks, Rusty here. Let’s have a look at what’s on offer for the next couple of weeks.

Honestly, break out the beach chair and the book, because for the foreseeable future, the surf is looking pretty flat and uninspiring. We’ve got a long stretch ahead with nothing really worth paddling out for. The first few days are a total write-off, with tiny swell and poor conditions. It’s gonna be a quiet one.

Looking at the whole 16-day window, the only thing that shows even a flicker of life is a slow bump in swell energy towards the middle of the second week, but even then, the quality just isn’t there. The wind is most often cross-onshore or onshore, and the wave comment is stuck on "poor surf conditions" for the entire run. It’s a grim outlook.

The only spot on the radar is Royal Palms State Beach. This is a sheltered reef and point setup, and it’s inconsistent, so it rarely breaks clean. For the first week, from Friday the 7th of August all the way through to Thursday the 14th of August, the swell is tiny, between 1ft and 2ft, and the wind is mostly a cross-onshore mess. The water temperature is a much warmer than normal 72°, which is a good 6° above average for this time of year – that’s pretty unusual.

Even as we push into the second week, things don’t get much better. On Saturday the 15th of August, the swell bumps up to 3ft from the SSW, but it’s still cross-onshore and choppy, with a combined energy of only 405 (moderate). The period is around 16 seconds, which is a long period groundswell, but with the wind and the tiny size, it’s just not going to offer any decent shape. The same story continues through to the 22nd of August, with the swell occasionally pushing 2ft to 3ft, but the wind is almost always cross-onshore, and the energy values (218 to 341) are still moderate. There’s just no standout window here.

The best of a bad bunch might be a couple of the mornings with light onshore winds, like the morning of the 16th of August (3ft, SSW, light breeze) or the 22nd of August (2ft, SSW, light breeze), but with the break being inconsistent and the waves so small, it’s barely a paddle. For beginners, the swell never gets above 3ft, so it’s not too big, but the quality is so poor it’s hardly worth the effort.

So, I’ve got nothing to get excited about. This is a total flat spell. For an area like this, a blank run is more normal than a surprise swell. Forecasts can change, but right now, keep the board in the shed.

Rusty.

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