Sandy Beach Surf Forecast and Surf Report

G’day, Rusty here. Let’s be straight with you: the next couple of weeks at Sandy Beach are looking pretty grim for a paddle. We’ve got a long stretch of poor conditions ahead, with the first proper chance of a surf not showing up until the very end of the window. If you’re after a wave, you’re going to need some serious patience.

The pattern for the next week and a half is dominated by a stubborn cross-shore flow out of the east-northeast, and it’s not letting up. The swell is small and mixed up, and the wind is just constantly ruining any chance of clean faces. From the 15th through to the 26th, it’s a whole lot of nothing. We’re talking poor surf, chopped-up lines, and onshore energy. The combined swell energy is weak to moderate at best, sitting around 2655 at the start but dropping off to triple digits like 207, 174, and even 73 by the 22nd. It’s just not worth getting wet for.

There is a slight change around the 20th and again on the 23rd, where a long-period south-southwest swell tries to push in, but it’s tiny – only 2ft – and the cross-shore wind is still there to chop it all up. That’s a tease, not an opportunity.

Now, for the one and only standout in this whole 16-day run: Sunday, August 30th. This is the one you’ve been waiting for. The model is showing a 10ft swell out of the east-northeast, with a 14-second period. That’s some serious groundswell energy, with the combined energy reading a strong 3507. But here’s the catch, and it’s a big one: this is forecast to be too big for Sandy Beach. It’s going to be a washing machine, closing out and dumping. This is only for the experts, and even then, it’s risky. The wind is cross-shore, not offshore, at 15 mph, so it won’t be clean, but it’s the only time in the whole window where the swell has any real power behind it. It’s a promise of something good, but a promise that might break.

Before that, there’s a marginal window on the 27th and 28th, with 4ft to 5ft of east swell, but the wind is still fresh and cross-shore, making it lumpy. It’s a far cry from good.

Look, if you’re an intermediate or a beginner, stay on land until the end of August. There’s nothing for you here. And if the waves are that big on the 30th, it might be more interesting for the kite crew than the paddle crew. It’s one of those desert stretches, but the fact that this last swell shows up at all means the ocean isn’t completely dead. Forecasts can change, and this longer-range call is promising but not certain. Keep an eye on it, but don’t hold your breath.

Rusty.

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