Salamumu Surf Forecast and Surf Report

G’day, it’s Rusty. So here’s the story for Salamumu over the next 16 days—honestly, it’s a rough stretch. This is a consistent, advanced reef break that’s wide open to the south-east, but for most of this forecast, the wind is just ruining everything. We’re talking a solid run of poor surf thanks to fresh cross-onshore winds making a mess of the surface. The only real bright spot is right at the end of the first week into the start of the second.

Water temp is sitting around 81°, dead average for this time of year, nothing unusual there.

The first week and a half is grim. From Friday the 21st of August all the way to the morning of Sunday the 30th, it’s a write-off. There’s plenty of swell—sometimes strong, with the combined energy cracking over 2000 on Saturday the 22nd afternoon, and some nice long-period groundswell in the mix—but that wind is just non-stop cross-on from the ESE or SE, mostly fresh breezes. The wave comment is “poor surf conditions” every time. Swell heights range from 2 ft to just over 6 ft, but with that chop, it’s not worth it.

Here’s the standout. Sunday the 30th of August is your day. The morning brings a clean ENE cross-off breeze at 12 mph, and by the afternoon it drops to a gentle 9 mph cross-off. Clean surf, finally. The swell is small—only about 2 ft from the south—but it’s an 18-second period groundswell, which means long, powerful, peeling waves on this reef. The combined energy is moderate (592-641), so there’s enough push to get some good rides. It’s rated a 3 out of 10, but for this outlook, that’s the best there is. Expect it to be a little inconsistent because of the long period, but the quality will be there. Crowds are “sometimes,” so you might see a few others, but nothing crazy. This is strictly for advanced surfers—reef and all.

After that, the wind turns bad again. Monday the 31st of August goes back to cross-onshore, and the rest of the run into early September dries up with tiny, sloppy surf. There’s a brief clean window on the morning of Wednesday the 2nd of September, but the swell is only 2 ft and the energy is weak (330), so it’s barely breaking. On the 5th of September we get a spike of chest-to-head-high south groundswell, but the wind is back to fresh cross-onshore, making it lumpy and more of a kite-surfing day than a paddle session.

Bottom line: the only session worth paddling out for is the afternoon of Sunday the 30th of August. Small but clean and lined up. Everything else is a frustrating mix of good swell and bad wind. When a spot like this goes quiet, it never lasts forever, but this is a lean stretch.

Rusty.

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