Salt Rock Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, Rusty here. Let’s take a good hard look at what the surf’s doing across this whole 16-day window. It’s a pretty bleak run for Salt Rock, to be honest. The first few days are a write-off, and there are long blank stretches in between. We’re looking at a gap of several days with no real recommendations, then a bit of a flicker, then another quiet spell before the second week tries to throw us a bone.

Right now on Wednesday, September 16th, it’s a mess. A 6ft east swell is coming in but the wind is a cross-on from the east at 9 mph, making it choppy and unappealing. The water’s sitting at 69°, which is a bit colder than normal for the time of year (anomaly of -2°). The whole sweep of the morning is a dud, and the afternoon gets even worse with a strong 25 mph cross-shore. Thursday offers a slight glimmer in the afternoon – we get a 8ft south swell with a short 8 second period, and the wind switches to a clean cross-off from the southwest at 16 mph. That’s the cleanest and biggest we’ll see for a while, but the energy is high with moderate combined swell energy (959), and it comes with a score that’s still marginal. Not a standout, just the best of a bad lot.

After that, everything tanks. Friday brings a massive 10ft swell but with howling onshore winds, and it’s chaotic. Saturday afternoon actually goes glassy, and there’s a 7ft east-southeast swell with 9-second period and a combined energy of 828. Conditions look clean enough, but it’s still a cross-on setup and the overall quality is just “expect very good surf conditions” on the scorecard – still not strong enough to call a win.

From Sunday the 20th right through to the end of the month, it’s practically all poor surf conditions. The wind is mostly cross or cross-on, the swell drops off to under 3ft, and the scores are zeros across the board. There’s a long stretch of nothing here.

Then on September 25th, a long-period 16-second groundswell from the south-southwest rolls in, pushing 5ft. The combined energy is strong (1027 to 1044), but the wind is a cross-on from the south at 9 mph. The period is long, which means it’s best suited for point breaks and reefs, not so much a beach break like Salt Rock. The afternoon is marginal at best. That’s the only real standout in the second week, but it’s a long way off and the wind isn’t doing us any favours.

So for the entire forecast period, your only real window is Thursday afternoon, September 17th, where that 8ft south swell sits with clean offshore-ish wind, and maybe keep a watch on Saturday afternoon, September 19th, for glassy but smaller surf. The rest? Honestly, it looks more interesting for kite surfing than paddle surfing given the combo of big swell and strong, ugly wind.

Rusty.

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