Shipwrecks Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, Rusty here again, breakin’ it down. Let’s see what’s cookin’ for the next couple of weeks.

It kicks off quiet. Friday the 24th we only got ankle-biters at 1ft – not worth wettin’ a wetsuit. The water’s a balmy 86°, which is a huge 5° warmer than usual for this time of year. That’s unusually warm. Problem is the wind: a light SSE breeze on Friday morning blows onshore, messin’ things up. By the afternoon, a moderate SW cross-shore with chop. Saturday the 25th looks similar with small, weak swell around 3ft to 4ft, but the wind stays cross or cross-onshore with moderate chop.

Sunday the 26th is a washout. We got a moderate 4ft of swell, but the wind is on it from the south, makin’ it choppy and poor. We skip Monday the 27th too – the swell builds to 6ft in the morning, but it’s still cross-onshore and chopped out. We are lookin’ at a gap of several days with no real recommendations.

Now, things start to get interesting around Thursday the 30th of July. The morning has 6ft from the SSW with a 12-second period, but it’s onshore. The real highlight is Thursday afternoon, where we get a clean cross-offshore breeze from the WSW. The swell drops back a touch to 5ft from the SW at 12 seconds, and with that wind, the surface should be tidy. The combined wave energy is moderate at 1045. It ain’t a monster session, but it’s the first clean window we’ve seen.

We then hit another dry spell. From Friday the 31st through to Tuesday the 5th of August, the swell drops into the 0.9ft to 2ft range. The energy readings are weak, all below 200. The wind is mostly onshore or cross, with a few glassy moments on Wednesday the 5th and Thursday the 6th of August, but the swell is tiny at 2ft from the south with a short period of 8 to 9 seconds. You might get a little knee-high ripple, but it’s ordinary at best.

The rest of the outlook into the second week stays flat. The swell barely pushes past 2ft again, with very low energy and mostly poor conditions. It’s a long blank run, and that’s just how it looks for this stretch.

The standout of the entire 16-day window is Thursday 30th July afternoon. The 5ft SSW swell with a clean cross-offshore wind makes Shipwrecks the spot to be. It’s a reef and point setup, fairly consistent, and the optimum swell is from the south. The wind will be off it, which for a point break is a treat. If you can get out there, that’s your best shot by a long way. That long 12-second period on a point means the waves will have good shape and energy, with longer waits between sets, so paddlin’ out won’t be a fight.

Rusty.

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