Shooting Gallery Surf Forecast and Surf Report

G’day, Rusty here. Look, I’ve had a proper squiz at the charts for Shooting Gallery over the next couple of weeks, and I gotta be straight with you – it’s a pretty bleak run. The whole 16-day window is a write-off for any decent surf. The prevailing wind is hammering it from the north and north-northeast, which is exactly the wrong direction for this spot. We’re looking at a solid stretch of cross-onshore and onshore slop, with a side of lumpy, choppy junk. Honestly, this isn’t a surf forecast; it’s a warning.

Let’s walk through it. From Thursday the 27th of August, the wind is already up – a fresh 30 km/h from the NNE, cross-on, and the swell is a weak 4ft from the north with a pathetic 5-second period. Wave energy is a measly 84 – that’s barely enough to push a piece of kelp around. It’s just poor. That theme carries right through the rest of August and into the start of September. Friday the 28th sees the swell bump up a touch to 5ft, but it’s still short period and the wind is even stronger at 35 km/h, dumping straight onshore. Saturday the 29th offers the biggest swell of the whole run – 6ft from the north with a long 11-second period, and energy jumps to 929 (moderate wave energy). But it’s all for nothing because the wind is still onshore or cross-on, making it a messy, washing-machine affair. Too big and ugly for beginners, and even experts would be fighting the chop, not the wave.

The second week drifts off into nothing. By the 5th of September, swell drops below 3ft, and the wind direction shifts a bit but stays cross or cross-on. There’s a glimmer of something different around the 6th of September with a 3ft swell from the NNW and a very long 13 to 14-second period – that’s groundswell, the kind that can wrap in with some shape. Energy is up to 362 (moderate). But again, the cross-shore wind at 25 km/h is just going to tear it apart. For a reef setup like Shooting Gallery, that long-period groundswell can be magic, but it needs clean glass, not a moderate breeze cross-chopping it up. And that’s the story right to the end on Friday the 11th of September: tiny waves, bad wind, poor conditions across the board.

Water temp on the 27th is 75°, which is a touch warmer than normal for the time of year – a little anomaly of about 3°. Nice for a swim, I guess.

So here’s the bottom line: there are literally zero good surf options in this 16-day window. If you’re desperate, you might find a crumbly close-out on the smaller days with lighter wind, but you’d be better off leaving the boards in the shed. Honestly, a setup like this, with that persistent northerly wind, looks more interesting for kite surfing than paddle surfing.

Keep an eye on it, though. Forecasts change, and it won’t stay this bad forever. But for now, I’ve got nothing to get excited about.

Rusty.

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