The Fort Surf Forecast and Surf Report

G’day, I’m Rusty. Let’s have a look at what’s coming up for The Fort over the next couple of weeks.

Alright, straight up – this is a tough run. The Fort is a reef break, intermediate-friendly, and it’s consistent, but the forecast is mostly a battle with messy, cross-shore winds and only small, often short-period swell. The water temp is sitting at 55°, which is about normal for this time of year, so no surprises there.

The first real chance you’d want to even paddle out is Monday morning, July 13th. You’ve got a tiny 2ft SSW groundswell with a 13-second period, but the wind is cross-onshore at 3 mph, light enough to keep it glassy-ish. The combined energy is weak (279), so it’s marginal and only scores a 1 – it’s clean but you’ll be scratching for waves. That’s about as good as it gets for a while.

From Monday afternoon right through to the end of July, it’s a grim stretch. The wind is nearly always cross or cross-onshore, gusting up to 22 mph, and the swell fluctuates between 2ft and 6ft, mostly from the WNW with short periods of 6–8 seconds. That’s windswell, choppy, and lumpy. Even the longer-period groundswells that pop up (16–18 seconds around July 18th–20th) are only 2ft–2ft, and the wind is still on it, so it’s messy and not worth the drive. The combined energy climbs into the moderate range (300–560) but the quality is zero.

The only standout in the whole outlook is Friday morning, July 24th. That morning you get glassy conditions – wind from the south at 3 mph, dead calm. The swell is 3ft from the SSW with a 14-second period, and combined energy is moderate (404). It’s a proper groundswell, clean and smooth. The Fort is a reef, so that long period should wrap in nicely. Crowds are possible here, so get there early. For a second, it feels like it might come together, but it’s only a morning window – by the afternoon the wind swings and the chops back.

The tail end of the month, July 25th–26th, brings a bigger pulse of swell – 4ft to 7ft from the WNW, but the period is short (10 seconds) and the wind is cross-onshore or fresh cross-shore, so it’s going to be a lumpy, blown-out mess. The 7ft on Saturday afternoon is too big for beginners and only for experts, but the wind will ruin it anyway. The combined energy gets strong (1559) but it’s not surfable.

So, the honest call: there’s a tiny window on the morning of July 24th that’s the best on offer – clean, glassy, and a little bit of long-period SSW groundswell. Everything else is either too small, too windy, or both. If you’re desperate, Monday morning July 13th is marginal but clean. Otherwise, this is a long, quiet stretch for The Fort.

Rusty.

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