San Gallan Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, folks, Rusty here. Let's cut through the noise on the Gallan area for the coming weeks.

I'm gonna be straight with you, this is a tough one for the surfers. Over this 16-day stretch, it's pretty much a bust. The wind is just relentless, blowing onshore day after day, and the swell is either too small or too messy to make anything of it. It's a long, bleak run.

The only faint glimmer of hope is on Monday, the 10th of August. We see a pulse of swell come in, about 5ft from the SSW with a solid 14-second period. That's real groundswell, and the combined energy reading is a hefty 1049 (moderate wave energy). The catch? The wind is a light cross-onshore breeze. It's not clean, but it's the best thing we're going to see. The spot is San Gallan, a consistent reef, so it'll be breaking. The water is a wild 70°, which is a massive 9° warmer than usual. That's very unusual. A bit of a freak event. Still, with that wind, it's a marginal call. That 5ft is too big for beginners, but experienced surfers might find a few.

That Monday afternoon, the wind picks up to a moderate breeze and it's back onshore, so the window is tiny. The rest of the first week and into the second is just more of the same – onshore wind and deteriorating conditions. Tuesday the 11th has a similar swell, but it's either onshore or cross-onshore with moderate chop. By Wednesday and Thursday the swell drops off and the wind is still bad. The 14th of August Friday afternoon sees the swell down to 3ft and cross-onshore, and it just gets smaller from there.

From the 15th of August all the way to the 23rd, it's a flat, windy mess. The combined energy drops to under 100 (weak energy) for a lot of that, and the swell periods are pitifully short. For example, the 17th of August has a 4-second period and 3ft of swell – that's just wind chop. Even the bigger pulses later on, like the 23rd of August with 6ft, are ruined by a short 6-second period and cross-onshore winds. For a beach break, that's just a choppy, ugly mess. Honestly, this is looking more like a kite-surfing window than a paddle-surfing one.

So, the bottom line: there is no standout session. The best you can hope for is a grumpy, quick session on the Monday morning of the 10th if you're a local who knows the reef and can handle that cross-onshore bump. The outlook is poor for the entire 16 days. But don't lose hope, it tends not to stay this bad for long, and the forecasts can change. For now, I'd be doing something else with your time.

Rusty.

Read more