The Breakwater-St Ives Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, let's break this down. Grab a cuppa.

Well, truth be told, looking at this 16-day window for The Breakwater-St Ives, it’s a bit of a lean spell. It’s one of those times where you’ll be checking the forecast more out of hope than expectation. There are no standout days where everything clicks into place perfectly, but let’s walk through what’s on the table and when you might want to paddle out.

The water at The Breakwater-St Ives is sitting around 60°, which is pretty average for this time of year, so nothing wild to worry about there for a quick paddle out.

Looking at tomorrow, Tuesday the 7th, it’s pretty flat. Swell is tiny, coming from the west, around 2ft with a period of 9 seconds. The wind is cross-onshore from the northwest, so it’s a bit bumpy and messy. The wave energy is weak, sitting at 81. Not worth getting the board out for.

Into Wednesday the 8th, there’s a slight bump. The swell nudges up to 3ft from the west-northwest, with a period of 10 seconds. The combined energy climbs to a moderate 120-123. Wind is lighter from the north-northwest in the morning, actually offshore. That’s a positive. While the wave comment says “poor surf conditions,” for a spot that’s inconsistent, a clean 3ft wave with offshore wind might just offer a few fun ones for the intermediate surfer. The afternoon sees the wind swing cross-onshore, making things choppy again. So that morning session on Wednesday is your only real window this week to get a few longboard waves, but don’t expect barrels.

Thursday the 9th is more of the same – 3ft west-northwest swell with moderate energy, but the wind turns more cross-onshore from the north-northeast, picking up to 12 mph by the afternoon. It’ll be lumpy.

Friday the 10th holds at 3ft swell from the west, the best size of this first week, with a period of 9 seconds. The energy is moderate, at 142. But again, the wind is cross-onshore from the east-northeast. It’s rideable but not clean.

After Friday, it really drops off. Saturday the 11th and Sunday the 12th see the swell shrinking back to 2-2ft, with short, weak 6-second windswell periods. The energy drops right off. Sunday and Monday the 13th bring very strong onshore winds up to 28-31 mph from the east, turning the ocean into a washing machine. It’s a mess. Honestly, this looks more suited to a kite surfer than a paddle surfer for a couple of days there.

There’s then a gap of a few days with very small surf and mixed wind. The swell bounces around 1.0ft to 2ft with almost no energy—just tiny dribblers. It's going to be quiet.

The next time the swell direction looks interesting is on Tuesday the 14th. We see a very long period swell of 18 seconds from the southwest, but at only 1.0ft. The wind is cross-offshore from the east-southeast but it is a strong breeze (28 mph). The wave energy is moderate at 107. A long period groundswell of that size and direction is highly unlikely to break properly at a spot exposed to the west-northwest; the energy is there, but the height is too small to make much of it. It's a tease.

The end of the outlook, around Monday the 20th and Tuesday the 21st, shows a consistent west-northwest wind swell, but very small again at 1.0-2ft, with short periods and low energy. The wind is cross-offshore or cross-on, so the conditions are cleaner but still nothing exciting.

So, for the best of what’s on offer across the entire 16 days, it’s really the Wednesday morning, 8th of July. The swell size is small but rideable for a longboard at 3ft, the direction is west-northwest which is a good one for this break, and the offshore wind from the north-northwest will give you a clean, crumbly face. The crowds at The Breakwater-St Ives are listed as 'sometimes' busy, but on a quieter, inconsistent day like this, you might find yourself with plenty of room. Just manage your expectations – it’s not a classic.

Rusty.

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