Tankers Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright folks, Rusty here. Let's have a look at what's on the table for the Tankers reef. It's the only spot on the cards, so we're sticking with it.

Looking at the whole 16-day run, it’s a bit of a slow burn. The first few days are pretty much a write-off for a decent paddle. There's a sizeable gap here - from now, the 15th of August, all the way through to the 22nd, we're dealing with poor to marginal conditions. Big, raw energy early on, but the wind just messes it up. Then from the 22nd, we start to see some glimmers, leading to what looks like the real standout session right at the tail end on the 30th.

So, starting off, Saturday the 15th afternoon. We've got a solid 13ft swell from the east, period around 10 seconds, and the combined energy is pumping at a massive 3225. That's a lot of ocean moving. But it's blowing a near gale from the ENE. The surf is going to be a clean, blown-out mess; big, but ugly. Definitely not one for the beginner. This heavy swell (over 8ft) is strictly for experts only, and even then, the wind makes it a battle.

That big wind sticks around, making Sunday the 16th a scratch day too, with a cross-on breeze and lumpy conditions on a dropping swell. Monday the 17th sees the swell drop right off to 3ft, but we finally get some better cross-off winds from the ENE. However, at that size and with a very long 14-second period from the south, it's just marginal. A long-period swell like that can be tricky at a beach setup, but Tankers is a reef, so it might line up okay, but the energy is low. This pattern of small, clean but weak surf carries on through the middle of the week.

Now, here's where it gets interesting. Saturday the 22nd afternoon. The swell is still small at 3ft from the SSW with a 16-second period. The combined energy is a modest 387. But the wind… it's going glassy. A big, fat zero on the wind scale. That’s a major positive; the surface will be like a mirror. For such a small, clean right-hander on the reef, this is as good as it gets for the small stuff. It’s the first real highlight of the period, just a little gutless on size.

Everything else after that is pretty average. The best call of the whole outlook lands on Sunday the 30th of August. The morning looks promising, but check out the afternoon. We’ve got a 4ft swell rolling in from the east, with a 14-second period. The combined energy is a solid 935, and the wind is a light, cross-off breeze from the east. Those are some perfect building blocks. The conditions are flagged as "very good." For a consistent reef break like Tankers, that’s a standout session. The water temp is a balmy 82°F, and with the anomaly being only 1°F, it's pretty much what you'd expect for this time of year. Get on that if you can.

-Rusty

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