Spanish House Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, I’m Rusty, and I’ve been watching this stretch of coast like a hawk. Here’s how it’s shaping up.

We’re looking at a pretty grim run for Spanish House over the next 16 days. Honestly, there’s no real quality surf on the cards. The first week is a write-off, with a lot of onshore winds and choppy, poor conditions. The swell is there, but it’s messy and weak. The water temp is about average for this time of year, nothing weird going on.

We start off Friday the 7th of August with a risk of thunderstorms and a solid 16 mph onshore breeze. The swell is 5 ft from the east, but with a short period of 7 seconds, it’s just a windswell. The combined energy is 263 (moderate), but the wind is ruining it. It’s poor. Saturday the 8th is similar, 4 ft swell, still onshore, still poor. Sunday the 9th drops to 3 ft, and the energy is weak (74). It’s not worth paddling out.

From Monday the 10th through to the end of the first week, the swell drops below 3 ft and the energy stays in the two-digit numbers – weak. The wind is either cross-onshore or onshore. There’s a brief moment of glassy conditions on the morning of Tuesday the 11th, but the swell is only 1 ft with a period of 7 seconds. You’d be floating, not surfing.

The second week doesn’t get much better. From the 18th of August, we finally see a slight improvement. The morning of Tuesday the 18th is glassy, with a 2 ft swell from the east at 9 seconds. The energy is still low (48), but it’s clean. The wave comment says “surfable waves but very ordinary conditions.” That’s the best we get. Then Wednesday the 19th morning has a light offshore wind from the WSW, with the same 2 ft, 9-second swell. Clean, but tiny. Thursday the 20th morning has a light offshore again, and Friday the 21st morning is glassy.

So, the standout – if you can call it that – is the morning of Tuesday the 18th, Wednesday the 19th, and Thursday the 20th. They offer the cleanest conditions with offshore or glassy wind. But the swell is only 2 ft. It’s a long-period groundswell (9 seconds), which is good for shape, but at that size, it’s really only for a longboard or a funboard. The crowd factor at Spanish House is “sometimes,” so you might have a few mates out, but with such small waves, it won’t be busy.

For the rest of the 16 days, it’s mostly poor. The swell direction is from the east, which is not the optimum for this break (NNE is best), so the waves won’t wrap in well. The overall forecast quality is low, and there’s no real energy to speak of. The combined energy values are all below 100 for most of the period, which is weak, and only briefly touch moderate levels (over 100) in the first few days, but those have bad wind.

To be honest, if you’re desperate for a paddle, aim for those glassy or offshore mornings in the second week. But don’t expect much. The setup looks more interesting for a bit of a flat-water paddle than a proper surf. The gap between the poor conditions and the barely surfable ones is a solid week of nothing.

Rusty.

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