Shipwrecks Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, Rusty here. Let’s look at what we’ve got on the cards.

Well, I won’t sugarcoat it – this is a grim run for Shipwrecks. The entire 16-day window is a struggle. There’s a long gap of nothing but poor surf, day after day, right from the start. The first faint glimmer of something surfable doesn’t show up until Friday, the 14th of August. Even then, it’s only marginal.

The overall pattern is one of small, onshore-affected swell. The wind is almost always blowing from the wrong direction – onshore or cross-onshore – which is murder on the wave quality. The swell is tiny, mostly sitting around 1 ft to 3 ft, and the energy is weak to moderate for most of the run. The water temperature is a notable 87°F, which is a massive 5°F warmer than usual for this time of year – that’s a seriously warm anomaly.

The only period that even gets a mention is late on Friday afternoon, the 14th of August. The swell bumps up to 4 ft from the SW, with a long period of 17 seconds. That’s proper groundswell energy, and the combined energy reads as a moderate 733. The wind is light and cross-shore from the SW, which could clean it up a little. Still, it’s only a marginal call, and the break is fairly exposed to that SW direction. If you’re desperate, that’s the window. But honestly, the quality is poor.

Saturday, the 15th of August, is a write-off again with onshore wind. Sunday the 16th sees a cross-offshore wind in the afternoon, but the swell is a weak 3 ft with a combined energy of 317. It’s clean, but tiny. Not worth the paddle.

The rest of the run into the second week is the same old story: small, weak swell with a cross-shore chop. There’s nothing to get excited about.

Forget the kite-surfing angle too – the wind is mostly light to moderate, not strong enough for that.

This is a classic blank run for the area. It’s just one of those stretches where you leave the board in the shed and wait for the next change.

Rusty.

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