St Mikes Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, Rusty here. Let's have a look at what's on offer for the next couple of weeks.

First off, I gotta be straight with you – it's a grim run. We're looking at a solid 16 days of nothing worth paddling out for at St Mikes. The whole forecast is a bust. The water temp is sitting at 70°, which is bang on average for this time of year, so you can't even blame that.

The pattern is all cross-shore winds and tiny, weak swell. The first week is a write-off, with most days showing combined swell energy in the double digits, like 103, 96, even down to 8. That's barely enough to ruffle the surface. Friday the 14th through to the 22nd of August, you're looking at a mix of moderate to fresh cross-shore breezes, and the swell height barely cracks 2 ft. It's all poor conditions, cross-chop, and lumpy stuff. Not a single window for a clean wave.

Now, there's a bit of a bump in the second week. Around Sunday the 23rd of August, the swell jumps up to 6 ft in the morning, coming from the SSW with a very long period of 16 seconds. That's a lot of energy behind it – 2311 is the combined energy reading, which is strong. But the wind is cross-on from the ENE, making it choppy, and the report says the surf is marginal. The afternoon sees a similar 6 ft swell, period 19 seconds, and energy of 4769, but it's still cross-on and messy. That's a lot of water moving, but with the wind and chop, it's not going to be a pretty sight. It's a reef break, so it handles the long period better than a beach, but the wind is the killer.

The rest of the week after that is more of the same – moderate to fresh cross-shore winds, with the swell staying around 3 ft to 5 ft, but the conditions are always called poor. The period drops off to 6 seconds on the 26th, which is just junky windswell. The energy readings are moderate, like 606, 316, 328, but the quality is just not there.

Honestly, if you're looking at this from a paddle-surfing perspective, there's nothing to chase. The only real movement is the bigger swell on the 23rd, but it's a mess. That kind of setup with the strong swell and cross-onshore wind might look more interesting for the kite surfers, but for a wave rider, it's a hard pass. The break is fairly consistent, but the conditions are consistently poor, which is just how it goes sometimes. Forecasts can change, but as it stands, there's nothing to get excited about.

Rusty.

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